Skip to main content

March 19, 2018 - After the Rain Comes the Rainbow -- Great Ride After Embarrassing Clinic Rides

Although I did not hear Michael say it, Hani insists that Michael said I should ride 20 minutes every day as opposed to 40 minutes a few times a week. So I've decided to take his advice to heart and try to get Iggy into a steady 5 days a week of shorter, better quality work. This new boot camp began yesterday, since it was 60 degrees and beautiful.

I did my in hand work with Iggy outside, and he was very good as usual. We then did our walk on long rein to relax and loosen around the jumping ring. Then we moved into the power trot getting him to "take me forward" and moving into the contact. It is easier to the right than to the left. But the jumping ring feels like a great place to work on this since it has a slight grade that will encourage Iggy to really push with those hindlegs.

We then moved to the dressage ring (freshly drug and delightful!) and went back to our big forward trot down the longside, counter flex through the shortside to keep him in the trot while I push, then straighten and back down the long side. Once Iggy caught on to the routine, he started truly taking me forward. It felt amazing and so connected in the bridle. We then move to the 20 M circle at the end to work on the canter. He was sticky to the right at first, giving me a bulky, bucky transition and sometimes just blowing me off. However, with some repetition and clarifying my aids (inside leg forward, outside leg back), we starting getting beautiful transitions. The first few canter circles, he wasn't in front of my leg and swapped behind. However, after getting him jumping into the transition and pushing him forward from the outside hand, the canter felt amazing. Riding him this forward and connected makes him feel like a hotter horse but the actual balance feels SO MUCH BETTER! I laughed in the last canter circles as they felt so amazing. I kept a close eye on my watch and we did only 20 minutes of actual work under saddle (after the in hand work).



I felt so encouraged to feel Iggy so balanced and forward. Hopefully this will be just the beginning of getting him stronger and good things to come this summer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When old becomes new - update to my old Pikeur Diana!

Here is the finished product! It was a plain black jacket so I added white and light blue trim with RHINESTONES! It's very sparkly! Here's a closeup of the collar, which looks better than the pocket. Now I am going to try to add coordinating trim (minus the rhinestones) to the saddle pad.

Catch-up Post -- Putting Together the Puzzle

It's been a long time since I have actually written any updates about Iggy. Partly, that is because it is difficult to write about things when you are still very much in the experimental stage. I think I have loved dressage since I was a teenager because of the constant experimenting, strategizing, and problem solving of every ride. I love the intellectual side of it. However, puzzles are more fun when you are making progress toward solving them. They are less fun when you spend a lot of time wondering if you have made progress, stayed the same, or actually screwed things up. From Iggy's first show - trying to keep the big canter in one piece! Iggy is my puzzle. He is a puzzle that makes my eyes light up and my heart sing when I see him. He has this sweet baby face and the personality of a labradoodle. When I look at him, he is everything I ever wanted. Yet, our journey has not been quite as straight forward as I thought it might be. When I sat on Iggy for the first tim...

Hard Decisions

I wrote the below in mid January but it was too hard to actually finish this post at this time: It has been a long day. After nearly 9 hours in the car for the trip to Ohio State to the equine hospital in PA to home, I am physically and emotionally spent. After getting positive updates the last couple days, I was looking forward to seeing Gadget without the furrowed brow of pain. However, again Gadget was toe-touching lame this morning. It has been 7 weeks that we have been fighting the infection and the pain. He has been through countless procedures, and even when clearly in immeasurable pain, Gadget tries to do as we ask. My emotions have been close to the surface for weeks, but it is when I think of the pain that Gadget has and continues to endure, that I can no longer stop the tears. I want with all of my heart for him to get better and I feel like we have tried everything available - surgeries, 5 antibiotics, countless lab panels, MRI, and more than 4 weeks of hospitalization...