Hey all! Finally a riding update. :)
I get to ride Phoebe for the week. She's a 16.2ish bay mare who evidently was doing some eventing previously and jumps up to 3'6" (not that there are really any jumps at the barn, but still, it's nice to know jumping is an option if I keep riding her after this. She's some sort of warmblood, I forget what though. I'll try to remember to snap a picture of her this evening.
Last night I didn't do too much, because she hadn't been ridden in over a week due to getting adjusted. She's also been slightly off for most of the 3-4 months she's been at the barn. Her feet are getting rehabbed so we're not sure if it's her feet, her body from being stiff and out of shape, or what. She works out of it and doesn't seem particularly uncomfortable so the plan for now is to just monitor it and see how things go.
She's a VERY different ride from Pro. She has no concept of power-steering, is pretty resistant to leg (she goes when you ask, but doesn't really power along), and after Pro's giraffe antics I feel like her head is at her knees ;). She was fun to mess with though and seems to have a pretty good attitude. I think I'll probably end up trying to do lots of bending exercises with her. We did some walk serpentines and then when we were trying to figure out what leg the lameness was in I did some square turns with her. She did very well with those and she apparently KNOWS dressage, so I think the lack of bending is probably just her being lazy.
I cantered her for a bit on a 20m circle and was really impressed. Her canter was much more put-together feeling and I got her to rock back some at the canter and use her butt some. I'm thinking I might be able to do lots of canter-trot transitions to get her off her forehand some at the trot?
I don't know if I'll ride tonight, it's apparently going to be freakishly hot and I'm doing stalls for the barn manager since it's her birthday. Hope everyone else has been having some nice rides as well!
3 comments:
Yay! An update from someone besides me, and about riding no less! Woohoo! :)
It sounds like you had a pretty good ride considering it was on a new horse who has been out of work. I would bet that the bending, steering, etc. would come with your working with her. Is there a chance this will turn into something more long term? (I hope so!)
The canter sounds great, and like something that you can use to your advantage to improve her other gaits. I hope you can figure out her mystery lameness too.
Yay! :)
I second the - Yay! An update!
Riding new horses is always such an experience...it makes me nervous, but it sounds like she was a good girl. I hope it does turn into something long term for you.
Yeah, me too. We'll see how the rest of this week/month go and what goes on with her lameness.
Normally I freak out a bit about riding new horses, but I lunged her first and couldn't get her to canter on the lunge so I figured she wasn't going to run away with me when I asked her to canter under saddle. ;)
Hopefully a new update tomorrow! We're supposed to try her with pads duct-taped to her feet tonight to see if she needs shoes...
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