Saturday we did our first trot around the arena. She stayed on the rail and seemed pretty relaxed. It felt so good to be really riding again. I am envious of the people hitting the trails, so I am stepping up my arena riding. I was working a lot on mounting and bending to a stop, along with some "pushing-passenger" lessons from Parelli. She is very good at edging right up to the mounting block. I taught her to love it by having her come one step toward it and scratching what I could reach. Then I would ask her for one more step and scratch more. She LOVES the mounting block. I don't mount her with it, because I prefer to mount from the ground in western saddles. When we move to the dressage saddle, I will use the block. For now, she sees it as her "scratching" post and where I drape all over her. Maddy is broke to ride, but I felt there were so many holes in her training, I wanted to start from square one. She going well under saddle, but gets agitated when she is not moving. When she is moving, she always heads in the direction of the door. Tomorrow I am hoping to work out strategies for these things at my lesson.
2 comments:
I agree with you that the best way to deal with horses with holes in their training is to go back to the beginning and start over. I think it makes for a much more confident horse.
Starting at the beginning has been good for me as well. I am learning all sorts of interesting things along the way.
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