Anyways, I've done two workouts with Lady this week so far. Since Wednesday is my day off from work and Friday is my day off from school, I am aiming to play with her at least those two days every week. And that is what happened this week. :)
Wednesday. Groundwork session, focusing on April's goals. Some direct pressure work to help with everything overall. Mostly circles, working on transitions and smoother changes of direction - very happy here! We succeeded in getting some lovely canter circles (the most solid I've seen in quite a while) and the trot was beautiful too, she was tracking up better than she has in a while. Quite pleased with that. We did some sideways work, because I want to get her lots better at going sideways with me in zone 1 (in front of her). She gets confused with this and doesn't like for me to stay in that position, but it turned out alright anyways.
It wasn't a hard workout, by any means, but I was sweating and she was warm, so I was satisfied. My thoughts as we finished up were about her mental attention span, which doesn't seem to last more than 20 minutes right now - something I want to work on extending so that we can eventually have an hour-long session.
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| Old picture, but I like it a lot. :) |
Friday. Riding session. I let her loose to graze about 45 minutes before I went out to ride, and I think that always helps some. When I first got on, she was quiet and calm, and I was quiet and calm, and we didn't do anything for about 10 minutes except sit and enjoy the lovely sunshine and spring weather. After that, we did some leg yields, which were okay, but not spectacular, and then went out into the big pasture. We did most of the work in the furthest corner from The Pony. While we were going along a long stretch of fenceline, I asked for the trot and we actually got about 10-15 strides calmly and easily. After that is where I went wrong, though. Instead of being satisfied with that, I asked for more, but wasn't able to ride it easily, which drove her crazy. The rest of the ride wasn't so great, but we ended with walking and calming down and it was okay in the end. My thoughts coming out of the session were that I definitely need some help with my riding, especially in the trot. I also need to work desperately on my timing because I am pretty terrible at taking pressure off at the right moment so that she can learn what is expected. We'll have to work on that.
Other news... I ordered garlic in SmartPaks for both Lady and The Pony. Should get here sometime next week and then hopefully we'll see a reduction in flies. :)
Other other news.... if one can trust a weight tape, Lady now weighs almost 950 pounds, which is absolutely amazing. The most I have ever measured her at was 1200-something and even though she has a bit of a hay belly, she looks awesome. I am super happy about that! :D
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