Post coming up soon on Communicable Diseases. In the meantime, here's some pictures from last week and a nice video of our gridwork from the Friday lesson.
Notice the nasty face McKinna is making. This is a habit of theirs when they get to run loose in the arena...run like banshees and look really mean!
The girls doing their best impression of "Mommmmmmmm, quit taking pictures of me!"
Aww, aren't they cute?Huh, Pandora looks a little skinny from the front - her hips poke out a little. It's just from not-much muscling back there, I promise. See?
I'd like to see more muscling on the topline, of course, but that comes with time.Here's the video from the lesson. We had a grid set up almost straight down the center line - one-strides set a bit short to help our horses understand the need to rock back, with placing poles in between to really keep them together and thinking.
It was a very good exercise for Pandora, who likes to get a bit strung-out. Between the second and third fence, you can see her check herself as she realizes that she needs to back off to make it over the third fence - woohoo! That's exactly what these are supposed to do :-) I'm going to set up a slightly tamer version of this at home, using just cavaletti, but I hope to do a similar exercise with larger fences soon. I know it's important to get the basics down over lower fences, but when she gets bored and lazy over the little stuff, I think it's time to make them bigger. Yes? Yes.
Nevertheless, a very constructive exercise.
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5 comments:
Yay! You're done with your first set of college finals. Ready to start the craziness over again LOL?
You might consider making your mom a co-author of your blog. She'd get to write and the blog would stay more active when you're busy. I enjoyed her post.
I love grid work. We usually do really intense grid work. Not so much for the horses, but for ourselves as Equitation riders. We do them no stirrups, hands, eyes closed. That way we learn to wait with our upper body, keep weight in the leg, and let the horse work.
It's a lot of work for the rider too!
I'm really glad to see Pandora doing so well. I had so hoped she would work out.
Watching you has made me more and more want to leave the Hunter/Equitation world and do Eventing!
I'm going to assume you're on semesters[I'm on quarters]. It's a little late now, but my advice is to not stress out about Finals. It doesn't do anything. Make a plan, and stick to it.
Leah Fry, I had my first set of finals last term ;) This term was a bit easier - two take home finals, two finals yesterday, so I'm done with almost a whole extra week to spare.
Making her a co-author might not be such a bad idea. I'll talk to her about it and see if she'd like to try it out.
Beckless..I taught Bailey and McKinna from square 1 about jumping, so I have always loved grids because you can work on yourself while the horse figures itself out!
Thank you, I'm very pleased with Pandora. She is such a sweet mare. And, do come over to the dark side, at least a little. Go to a schooling event, at least! It's so much fun. I love cross country - it is pretty much the coolest feeling ever.
I do my best to not stress about finals. I did not prepare as well as I should have this time, so I had a bit of cramming to do, but I think I pulled it off. We'll see by the end of the week when grades are up!
B, Panda looks so wonderful! I am hoping to find a nice TB eventually but I think it'll be some time yet.
Thanks, oregonsunshine. What kind of riding would you be doing with your TB?
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