Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been super busy in the last two weeks between graduation, family events, and horse stuff. I will give you the reader's digest version of updates.

We will start of course with Satin. As usual she has been wonderful. She is in great shape and weight and looks like a million bucks. We had a lesson last week in which we worked on stretchy trot and canter. We asked both mares to stretch their necks and backs out, getting their necks long and low. We did this because R and I discussed dressage earlier in the week and Satin's dislike of stretching her neck out. R decided we would work on it in the lesson as it would be good for both Satin and L's mare Lexie. Well Lexie took to it right away and got it quickly. Satin was another story.

As I figured would happen she was not at all interested in this idea. It was one of her weaknesses when we did western pleasure. We tried three different methods going over half hour before we finally saw some progress. R said you have to be both patient and stubborn. Well let me tell you my mare can be extremely stubborn when she wants to be. She takes after her mother (aka me) LOL. But, finally we found something that worked by basically putting steady pressure and an inside bend so to release tension she had to drop her head. Once she got the idea she did very well. She even did it at the lope nicely too.

So because of my busy week I did not ride her for two days after the lesson, but when I rode her again on the following Saturday she got the long and low stretchy trot right away. Thankfully my mare is extremely smart because after that lesson I was sore, so going through that process again would have been difficult. Then when Lisa and I went on a trail yesterday she was stretching out on her own at the canter. Now we have to work on getting it in the hackamore.

Now for the Try update. I have moved up my rides on Try to twice a week now that it is almost time for him to go home. We lesson one day and have a supervised ride with R the other. She usually rides his fieldmate Taz with us and let's me do my own thing, but gives me some guidance and suggestions.

In our lesson two weeks ago we rode bareback. Try had thrown a shoe so we were only riding him lightly in the indoor. It was fun. He had the nice flat bareback and comfortable gaits perfect for a bareback horse. He did well in our other rides with R following that as well. We are making progress and getting very used to each other.