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Last ride before the rain |
Between the arenas getting shut down due to rain, then getting sick for a few days, then recovering just in time for an extra long weekend trip – it has been quite some time since I’ve had some lesson progress on ponykins!
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Rainy days mean cleaning boots |
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Beautiful hiking in Mill Valley |
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In-your-pocket ponykins |
Something I need to practice is not allowing Hemie to curl behind the vertical when asking for stretch downward and forward. As long as his neck was down, I wasn’t nit-picking. I need to start being more specific about where his nose is.
Also I need to be more proactive about connection to the left rein (I kinda avoid it). I need to ask him to connect to the left rein more often – even when tracking left. A helpful exercise for that is to do dramatic leg yielding on a circle when first tracking right – exaggeratedly ensure that he is respectful of my right inside leg and connects to my left outside rein. Then I need to use that left rein for half-halts rather than avoid using it for fear of losing connection.
Overall a great lesson. Laurie got a kick out of my new hot pink gloves. Funny story – I went to the tack store to buy white gloves for night rides so Laurie can see my hands better in the dark. But all the white gloves were quite pricey, as they were all dressage show gloves! So I went for some Noble Equine hot pink from the bargain pile – under $20 (though they are one size too small…).
What a good boy!!
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Love Noble Equine! Haha
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Loving the pink glove idea!
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sounds like some serious progress on the flat – like he's really relaxed and understanding about it!! also love the pink gloves lol
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I need to clean my boots so badly…
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