Two big wins during our lesson tonight:
Win #1 – Second ride in a row that Marley has picked up the left lead canter every time. Even before his vacation he could be sticky to the left, but this spring and summer it has been really… how do you say…. ugly. Progress, though!
Win #2 – We have graduated from single ground poles to a “course” of, well, still ground poles. It’ll be a while before we’re jumping anything, but ground poles are great because they give Marley something to think about and really encourage him to use his back.
Today my trainer set up a “course” that looked vaguely like this:
Our task was to:
- Track left, and then trot from C to A
- Pick up the canter at A, proceed to working trot at C
- Across the diagonal from H to F across two ground poles
- Track right, and circle over ground poles at V, S, R, and P
- Working canter at A
- Working trot at A
I can’t say that every moment was a thing of beauty, but we had a few really nice sections, including the last lap at canter.
Post-ride we did Marley’s favorite thing and wandered around the trails on the property. Tonight the bunnies were out in force – we must have passed more than 10 hopping along around the trail and in the brush. The weather has been really warm and beautiful at the barn lately, and I’m trying to soak it up as much as possible. It’s still incredible to me sometimes that I live in this crazy beautiful state!
Urban Thoroughbred 