(no subject)

[diaryofarider]

More fabulous weather today- I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a jacket, and then sun actually made me feel a little hot at times. Trudi started off well at the walk and trot, then we went to canter to the left and she turned into a total butthead. She was not paying attention, tripping, rushing, picked up the wrong lead twice, then the third time I put her into the canter I thought she lamed herself- trainer had me bring her back to a walk and then trot- she was ok, just so distracted that apparantly she was all "DUH, I forgot how to canter, DUH."
So we did walk/trot transitions every few strides, then canter, halfway around the circle, trot, canter halfway around the circle, trot, etc. I actually had to use the whip on her each time for the canter transition because as trainer put it, "She's not even aware that you're asking." So after a bit of this Trudi decided maybe she could pay a little more attention to me and a little less to the person putting things in the dumpster. Once she started paying attention trainer had me raise my hands a couple of inches to keep an unbroken line from elbow to bit and contact got LOOOOOOVELY.
Then we ran through training level test 1 - first time we pretty much did everything, but it was very rough- she fussed with the bit at the halt and backed up, was above the bit and looking around at the trot, tense at the walk- canter was not that bad, though it was above the bit too. Toward the end in the last corner she did a nice trot, last halt was awful too.
We went through it again and did a better job. We did the halts through the walk and I let up on the reins sooner. We did lots of flexing and suppling on the straightaways which engaged the hind (and her mind ^_^), and she relaxed a little and gave some lovely trot. Canter was slightly better when I remembered to step to the inside at the corners and circles. Walk was a little more relaxed (have to remember to slow her down as when she's excited she tends to lose rhythm). If she can pull off a test like that at a show I'll be very pleased to know that she was paying attention and giving a good effort.

Comments

[skyhuntress.livejournal.com]

so is the goal to show her this spring? or just wait and see how it plays?
do you know that I will sacrifice my soul to get out of training level this year? I am SO SO SO bored of it :P

[diaryofarider.livejournal.com]

Yup, my plan is to do her first show in May- if that doesn't work out, we'll do a show later in the year. Talked to trainer and if I show intro, we can't show first level this year, so looks like we'll start at training, which really should be ok. If that's all we do this year, I'll be happy with it, but I think there's a chance I can show her first level by the end of the summer, so the plan is to go ahead and try her at training level.

[skyhuntress.livejournal.com]

how old is she now? 5?