"we'll make room for you" jill said, cantering past the entrance to the sandring and then changing the location of her small circle in front of her teacher. a longstanding student and boarder was standing there waiting to enter.
"don't worry, i'm watching and learning" replied the next rider, to jill's delight. they were leg yeilding around the top part of the circle at a walk and then striking off into canter for the rest of the figure and then making another transition back to walk within the 15meters, in order to leg yeild some more. it was an interesting and effective exercise she'd never tried before and was a result of her request to the teacher to give the school horse a "tune up" since she'd been ignoring the leg of the students in classed jill'd been teaching that week. jill enjoyed the ride and was also proud when the teacher said as she was leaving how well she'd ridden.
maybe she wasn't as rusty as she thought. and, her pony friend had such a good work ethic too!
they began and ended their ride playing tag with the fearless 4 year old, including opening and closing gates and barriers into the arena. the horse was so brave, agile, responsive AND sensible, the games were just great!!
**
the other day i had a private lesson on farah. we worked on forward (even though she's a speedster) around and around the sandring in every gait for nearly a half hour; then we jumped a couple poles in a really rhythmical and relaxed way.the next time we went out, it was a practice ride after the b-day party.
since the hay in the big, back field had just been cut, we had a little handgallop along one side, trotting the rest in each direction. then we trotted around the manure pile field treeline, and trotted around the shed paddock twice.
then when we joined the group lesson yesterday SHE WAS TOTALLY AWESOME. so soft and quiet and collecting!
5.7 pg 41 Dressage in Harmony
The Good Ride Danger
When you have a good ride one day, it is wonderful, but it also very dangerous. On the next day, as soon as you mount, you tell yourself, "I hope it will be as good as yesterday..." And the rider expects the same performance of the horse immediately. If the rider tries to get the feeling he had yesterday right away, then he will start to get tight. I cannot expect to start my search for a butterfly with him already in the net! I have to wait for him." etc etc.
