Wednesday was a gorgeous day - warm , sunny - my fav kind of weather. I took Riva outside to the dressage arena to lunge. She was lovely - forward, energetic, eager to canter. Only problem was the arena was sloppy wet from recent rain. P checked the jumping arena - way too wet to ride. The other riders there Wed. evening were riding in the outside dressage arena. So - great time to work on canter in the indoor, with no other riders!
P came out to encourage with the lunge whip. He hung out at one end to help keep Riva going. She was willingly picking up canter and trying. She was in front of my leg and keeping her head up. I was able to keep her at canter on the right lead for a full arena circuit - yeah!! First time we cantered thru all 4 corners before she broke to trot.
I was only able to get one side and 3 corners of canter to the left - but she was starting to run out of energy. I had worked her pretty hard on the lunge cantering before riding. We stitched to trot work and she stayed forward and listening. We worked lots of change of direction, circles, change of speed . Was really happy with the canter work - exciting!!
Thursday evening, the outside arenas were drier. L wanted to work on jumping with Hennessy. Riva and I rode around the jumping arena - worked on trot and ground poles. P had set up 5 ground poles - at trot spacing - for L to warm up Henny before jumping. He had them set up right next to the jump grid that L was working on. Several times, I took Riva over the ground poles at trot, at the same time Henny and L were going thru the jump grid. Both Riva and Henny had no problem with this - talk about a good distraction!
Both horses were focused and doing their jobs. L and Hennessy did faboulus for their first jumping session of 2011. First show is just over a month away....so hoping the weather cooperates and they can get out and jump many more times before that.
When I get a bit down about Riva and my progress - sometimes thinking we should be farther along - I look at last year and know we both have come a long way. Last year - if I stayed on Riva and tried to ride her back up to the barn, after riding in the jump or dressage arena - she would try and bolt. So far this Spring - she walks calmly back up to the barn and halts very easily for me to dismount and lead her in. On Thurs nite, we evern walked over the 'bridge' before going back in. Last Spring - she would avoid that bridge like it was a black hole!
Miss Riva got Friday and Sat nights off - so hoping for a great, energetic, focused ride Sunday night. A girl can hope!
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