Unclenched

Took Luba to the back trails. Sonja's paddocks are sandy and grassy - virtually no mud. Luba has forgotten what mud looks like and there is a patch of mud at the entrance to the trails. I stayed calm and stayed patient, used my crop sparingly but to great effect and we were off!

Luba was very looky today. Three spooks - the horses at the far end of the field, a wild turkey near the picnic table and a duck flying out of the creek.

I know that wild turkey hen is out there!

Spring has sprung! Wild violets?

We walked most of the first 25 minutes trying to focused. Once we found the driest spots, we set about to trot and then cantered the long stretch at the back of the paddocks. We trotted towards home and cantered away from home. Took a 10 minute break back at the trailer and then did the trot/canter work again on the long stretch.





Today it really hit home that clenching with my thighs is bad. Relaxing and lengthening my inner thigh allows me to sit deep. When I sit deep, I can recycle Luba's energy (and my energy). On each stride, as I catch her energy, I can soften it when I pass it back to her. Like someone throwing you a baseball really hard and then you catch it and lob it softly back.

I practised speeding up and slowing down the trot or canter on the long stretch using my seat and recycling the energy. Going fast is not scary when both of us are in sync. Be the canter. Be the trot. Human Be-ing.

In other news, having the trailer parked near the paddock has been good ride camp practice. I have a total system worked out now. I LOVE my new saddle rack in the nose of the trailer.

HOTS ride camp - the scene of the great Bolt and Bail Episode

Luba post ride

And Luba is now totally bombproof about small motorized children's vehicles. :)  Sonja says it is easier to train the horses to get used to the little jeep than to tell the kids to stop playing.

Children At Play

Experience life with horses at Horses of the Sun.