Ruby is finally becoming so accustomed to our (nearly) weekly lessons that I think the honeymoon period has worn off and she's no longer constantly on her best behavior 😂 which is actually fine by me! It's a lot easier for me to get tools to deal with her evasions if my trainer can actually SEE said evasions, lol.
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| A balmy 19 degrees when I loaded up 🥶 |
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| We got quite a bit of snow Saturday morning, so I had scheduled my lesson for Sunday, hoping the roads would be better by then. They mostly were! |
Sunday's lesson Ruby was totally game for all our initial trot work and felt great, but she got a little obstinate when we added a new exercise - a 20m circle at the walk in the center of the arena, with a 360 degree turn on the forehand when we crossed centerline and continue on the walk circle. To the left, she got a little sassy but we got it done (and it eventually got pretty decent!) and then to the right she got a little claustrophobic in the contact and decided to get light in the front. It's not an evasion she pulls out often but it's there and I don't particularly enjoy it (since I generally ride alone at home). But at least new trainer got a chance to see it so we worked through that (I don't want Ruby to learn that rearing gets her out of something she thinks is hard) and then moved on to a different exercise to give her a break. To the left, we incorporated the same exercise but adding in trot and canter in between the turns on the forehand and it really, really helped the adjustability of the canter.
And speaking of, the canter is coming along so well, just in bits and pieces. We can absolutely get fantastic canter for a few strides but if I'm not constantly checking in with the bend she'll get super straight and then just run off. Dressage is hard guys.
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| DH stayed home to finish the furniture restoration you saw in Wednesday's post, so again, light on media. |
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| Her snow mustache, I die. |
The other good news from this lesson was that my equisense is still alive 😂 the Thursday before the lesson after my ride I tucked the sensor into my pocket to bring inside before the cold snap (which always seems to drain the battery) and I forgot it was in that vest pocket and tossed it in the washing machine Friday 🤦♀️ thankfully I realized it before the cycle actually RAN but the vest was submerged in water when I fished out the sensor, so I threw it in a bag of rice and hoped for the best. I put it back in the rice after the lesson, and I won't be using it anytime soon anyway (more garbage weather), so hopefully I didn't do any long term damage by submerging it in water! 😬
Ooh, I'm totally stealing that exercise...
ReplyDeleteIt was a good one! And I can do it even when my arena is frozen 😂
DeleteI like that exercise. You have to love these spanish mares- it's like 'you want me to use my hind end, well OKAY!'.
ReplyDeleteHaha that's how I tried to look at it! Like no, not what I wanted, but sure, take the weight behind and lighten up on the forehand 😂
DeleteOh Ruby... I agree with you though, I prefer when they act themselves in front of the trainer so they can actually help fix the issues! Sounds like a great lesson overall!
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely super useful to be riding a creature more like the one I get at home 😂
DeleteThunder used to do this for a while as well. Ploddy old Eeyore at home and then a fireball at lessons so we could actually engage the bottom and do things! Until he eventually decided that lessons were boring too and plodded everywhere...
ReplyDeleteSounds like yours started out the opposite of me, but then levelled out to normal behavior.... haha. Hopefully that's the way we're heading!
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