A New Day

Tuesday


Today proved to be much better. We rode with another horse and rider that have been working on many of the same things that we have been working on. This was a little scary at first because Toby was upset about having to share the arena.

We started off working on our leg yielding along the wall. Toby was pretty good about maintaining the contact and his rhythm. Overall, I was pretty happy with how he was doing.

After some leg yielding, we moved on to "spiral in, spiral out." Now, the brain went into melt down mode. Anytime that I applied leg pressue, Toby would go faster. He became strung out and fell on the forehand. After some pretty strong half halts and 8-meter voltes, Toby decided that he would try to remain calm and do as I asked. We were doing pretty well until he spotted the other horse. Then he became frustrated and started sucking behind the vertical and swinging his haunches out. UGGGHHH. Walk Break.

During our walk break, I started rubbing my legs back and forth on his sides to desensitize him. At first, he would break into a trot every time I touched his sides. After a couple of minutes, he finally started to relax and let me touch his sides without immediately breaking into the trot. Yay for walk breaks.

Then came the dreaded words..."Now, we're going to try some canter work."
ME: "Is she serious? Hasn't she seen us stuggling just to maintain some sembelence of order here?"
Riding Instructor: "We're going to put Toby on the lunge line and see how he does."
Me: "OK. We'll see."

I reluctantly put Toby into the trot thinking this was going to be disasterous. "Now sit a few strides and ask for the canter."

ME: Sit, sit, sit, sit (while half halting)...ASK
Toby: Beautiful left lead canter depart.
My jaw about hit the floor. We had never had a canter depart like that before. He just stepped right into it. No fuss, No buck. THAT WAS WAY COOL.

Next was a nice downward transition to the trot and a small walk break.

I'm not sure where that came from, but I can live with it. And reverse.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about going to the right. This is not my best side. I tend to twist and bring my left shoulder forward.

What happened next was unbelievable to me. Again, I put Toby in the trot, sat a few strides and asked for the canter. Toby's rear end dropped so much, I thought I was going to fall right off the back. It was like riding a rocking horse. He was collected, balanced and upright. HOLY COW!!

A beautiful downward transition to the trot, then to the walk and we were done for the day. AWESOME!! You can bet there was serious treating going on after that. LOL.