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It was surprisingly humid yesterday. Not ultra hot, but warm and humid. A bad hair day. I went out to the barn, tacked up Trudi, got on, and she...plodded. I started to wonder if she was sick. She wasn't lame, just SLOW. She didn't spook or shy, at ANYTHING. She didn't try to rush. She was just completely lacking in zest, zeal, or zazz. She was obedient, but flat footed. It felt like she wanted to stop and just stay still. It was WIERD. I did a relatively normal type workout, but it took a while to get some spring in her step and swing in her body. I rode pretty well. I thought about that left seatbone, and let that leg HANG, like a log- any time I thought about pulling it up I let it get long again and it was good. There wasn't any spooking at the BC. We even cantered through there and there was no rushing or shying. At one point I realized I was holding too much on that left rein again, so I just put my body on a circle and let the reins out to the buckle- she stayed on the circle and never even changed tempo. We had some wonderful canter after doing some work on 20m circles- half canter, half trot. Trudi perked up a little- no rushing, just a nice uphill canter- she almost suckered me into letting her pick up the canter again right after the trot by offering these lovely transitions-
Trudi: "Look at this lovely canter transition. Isn't this a nice canter? Don't you want to keep cantering?"
Me: "Oh, this IS nice. I think I would like to keep cant...hey wait a minute, that's not what I want to do."
So the canter work was really fun, and it was good to end things well. At the beginning Trudi started out more quiet and slow than she has ever been. But I didn't enjoy that as much as I would have thought. That's not really Trudi. When she is herself she is energetic and springy and she wants to move. I can do with the less spooking part, but I don't want her to lose her enthusiasm.
I think it was probably the humidity- this is unlikely to be an ongoing problem because it's hardly ever humid here, but it's interesting to see what a drastic change can occur.
Trudi: "Look at this lovely canter transition. Isn't this a nice canter? Don't you want to keep cantering?"
Me: "Oh, this IS nice. I think I would like to keep cant...hey wait a minute, that's not what I want to do."
So the canter work was really fun, and it was good to end things well. At the beginning Trudi started out more quiet and slow than she has ever been. But I didn't enjoy that as much as I would have thought. That's not really Trudi. When she is herself she is energetic and springy and she wants to move. I can do with the less spooking part, but I don't want her to lose her enthusiasm.
I think it was probably the humidity- this is unlikely to be an ongoing problem because it's hardly ever humid here, but it's interesting to see what a drastic change can occur.
