Shoulders Back, Look Ahead

 Our lesson is postponed to Tuesday, since the ever cool S is teaching a fire fighting course all weekend! S's course may come in handy for me as well because Ms Bridget was on fire herself all weekend. I have no idea what's got into her -it's been unseasonably warm and she's sweaty and miserable in the remnants of her winter coat. You'd think that would mean a slow and lazy pony. Yet she's the opposite. My job as a rider is slowing the little mare down and getting her to relax. She's all about leaping off my leg and doing her very best giraffe impression. I think what's happened is she's finally decided canter is fun and figured out she can do it and I'll be pleased. So right now in her mind the answer to everything is to canter. Leg yield = canter, moving shoulders = canter, asking for bend = canter, etc, etc. She was also super interested in taking me to the 'jumps' I left in the ring and was a bit excited about that. I've created a monster :) I'm not overly concerned since she is at least thinking forward and interested in figuring out what I want, which is a million times preferable to disinterested and lazy. We can work with this new Bridget!

Just a zoomed in shot of her cute little face

We spent a lot of time doing circles and spirals on Saturday, reminding pony she can work on the bit and bend around my leg all at the same time. Apparently that sort of stuff goes out the window when you are a newly invented racing and jumping pony :) I had left my jumps as trot poles on the ground and got a pretty exuberant leap over the first, so we did that a few times until she realized it was just a trot pole and actually not exciting at all.

When I finally did ask for a canter, it was a really nice depart, but gradually gained speed until it was pretty quick. As the rider, I was thinking of letting her go forward and staying out of her way, and failed to correctly read the situation. Unfortunately, baby pony wiped out around the corner. The good thing is that she stood up quickly and was totally unharmed. Also, after hating myself in the previous post's photos, I was super focused on keeping my hands and head up and my shoulders back, which meant what could have been a nasty rider fall was prevented  I ended up with both feet on the ground, but stayed right in the tack.  Funny how proper equitation is also effective and safe :) After a walk and trot to confirm we were all no worse for wear, we had a lovely (and much more careful) canter. It seems baby pony actually can sit her butt down and rebalance in the corners when asked - who'd have thought? :) We're going to hack up to the ring again today - fingers crossed she isn't stiff after yesterday's misadventure.

From the other day - Hunchy McHuncherson needs to sit up straight!

I'm still unsure whether we're going to hit the first show of our little season, but we're prepping as if we are planning to attend.