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

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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.

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