Long Reining, Round 2

So tonight I brought out the nice new caveson and played around with long reining some more. I really should ride her since I'm leaving tomorrow for a week (don't worry, I've got some posts scheduled, but I won't be replying to comments).

Here's how the night went.

Mom took her out of her stall and tied her. I went into the tack room and grabbed caveson, surcingle, two longe lines to serve as long lines, and the top half of a two-part whip (perfect for long-reining -- it's light but the lash itself is serviceably long).

I swear she rolled her eyes at me.

At the very least, she heaved a big sigh and stood patiently while I adjusted the caveson (needs to be a bit tighter in the jaw straps I think, it slipped a bit) and put the surcingle on and threaded the lines through.

Patiently, she followed me into the arena, and perked her ears at me. This is McKinna's trademark Arab Face, as in "Okay, you've gone off the deep end again, and I'm somewhat interested in figuring out what the hell you're doing."

So we set off with some walk-trot circles, figures-8, serpentines, and general loopy goodness. She did really well. The disadvantage of working in both directions in one session is that both reins are attached directly to the caveson, run through the surcingle rings. I like it better when the inside rein is run through the caveson and clipped to the surcingle, because it's less direct and encourages them to relax into the bend rather than resist, but then you have to switch it every time you change directions. So we managed.

Then we both got bored and she was doing well, so we went for a walk outside. Down the hill, around through the weeds while she patiently turned and stopped and circled, then a bit of walking in the outdoor arena and we called it good.

In any case, I am really enjoying this long-reining stuff, and for all her disgusted sighs when she sees the tack come out, McKinna seems to be enjoying the mental challenge.

Pictures!
Isn't that field behind our arena gorgeous? It's massive, it's gently sloping, and I covet it SO SO MUCH. It's wasted with cattle on it, I tell you.

As always with one ear on me and one on the lady with the camera.

I didn't mean to aim her between those two frisbees, by the way. They were just there and we happened to go through them. See what I mean about the strap sliding a little, though? I think it's a bit too close to her eye.


Tomorrow: the promised Batman Post.

Following that, there'll be posts about my lesson the other night, the story of the first time we trailered Bailey to an OHSET practice, a description of the now-infamous "Cake Walk" event that OHSET once held, and teenager-glee about the Eventing camp I'll be going to in the beginning of August.