A cool front moved through last night putting us at about 87 degrees. I'm thinking wow! That's riding weather. Journey has been off since two weeks before the heat wave, so almost a month . I thought I'd just spend an hour today making sure we were communicating and the gears were working. Saddled her up and took her up to the front lot. We've been spraying to try to eliminate clover, so my obstacles were piled up by a tree. I mounted up and we walked past that tree and ZOOM! She went from a crawling walk to full gallop in one stride. So we regressed and just worked the scary off that pile of stuff. On the other end of the lot the neighbors had stacked up another training opportunity, I mean tires. So we had to work the scary off that end too. We walked some, we trotted some, we cantered a little. We worked on "whoa" which really meant work on the back up. Went kind of like this.
Forward momentum at the walk.
Lift rein.
Roll seat back towards my pockets (if I had pockets)
See-saw the reins in a slightly upward motion increasing pressure
INCREASING PRESSURE
REALLY INCREASING PRESSURE
She steps back.
Really sluggish, really tough to get a response.
But each repetition it got lighter, and lighter. Finally I was able to lift the rein and roll back my seat, and she'd step. The back up / whoa isn't fixed, but certainly we made good progress . Once she attempted to be light I got off. Then we practiced a trot out from the ground.
Journey:" na na na na na na I DON'T WANT TO you can drag my head off."
~E.G.: " (riding crop in hand under her flank) tap tap whack! Yes you do my Spotted Wonder, yes you do!"
Next trot out I had all kinds of stink eye but I could barely keep up.
She's a turd. A loveable turd, but a turd nontheless.
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