The weather is finally cooperating around here so hopefully summer Eli is here to stay for a while. It might be time to break out the roller ball spurs! But only for flat work.
Monday
So windy. But characteristically, Eli didn’t seem to mind.
Tuesday
Tuesday
Lovely evening, and I tracked this ride with Equilab. I got in more time at the canter, but apparently that means less trot?
I seem to have a 25-minute clock in my head for rides and I should push it to 30. Plenty of transitions, though. Honestly, how does a ride without many transitions even work? I don’t know. This is a pretty good visual representation of how we can walk-to-canter but still struggle with canter-to-walk.
Wednesday
Too pretty to work. Eli and I strolled around the wildflowers at sunset.
Eli is asking me to take his bridle off so he can graze
Thursday
Eli rode SO WELL last night. I jumped him a little bit, not knowing whether we’ll be able to beat the weather Saturday. He seems to love it when I shove my hands at him and let him jump from a snug distance (provided I keep my shoulders back–it doesn’t work otherwise). Sometimes we get a little too snug because I ride right past the distance into an add step … maybe I should just, ya know, do nothing. That seems to work best.
He got new shoes on Thursday, too, and moved out very well with this new setting. I am also noticing the benefits of copper-coated nails — nail holes definitely stay tighter (and of course copper has some anti-microbial properties but Eli doesn’t seem prone to thrush). We’ll stick to flat work again tonight and MAYBE I will FINALLY get an actual Saturday lesson with my trainer in what seems like ages because I guess Saturday is Crap Weather Day.
I learning about the “snug distance hands forward” ride as well! My trainers have finally convinced me that 3 strides out there is essentially nothing I can do with my reins that will help fix a distance. In fact, continuing to pull to the base only makes the horse tense and the jump uglier. I am learning this ride, and it is hard! LOL
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ha, YES TO ALL. You’d think it would be easy to do nothing but nope.
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I wish we had better service at my barn so Equilab would actually work.
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I had to mess with a few settings to get it to work right, but I can’t remember which settings.
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Hmm I might have to take a better look at the settings then.
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