Wednesday, March 21, 2012

And the Pictures Continue!

My one and only New Year's Resolution was to post more pics of Riva on my blog.  Thanks to my great husband...I am not having any problem keeping that resolution.  I do believe the Diva is on her way to becoming the most photographed horse in history!

The mild Indiana weather certainly is not hurting - the trees and grass are blooming and making for lovely rides outside...LOVE.

I had a lesson last evening with my trainer on Riva.  We mutually decided to just lesson on Riva for the time being - until I need a refresher on the schoolmaster, V.  My trainer was happy with my position - I still need reminders to keep my hands even (right one likes to creep forward) and keep my elbows back and relaxed.

She first had me run thru my Intro B test - 1st show this weekend!  She was happy with our tempo and rthymn - our trot down the centerline and halts were good at the beginning and end, the medium walk was good, downward transitions were good.  Things to work on - circles, free walk, upward transitions.  All in all - she saw more good than bad.

Halt at the end of test:


 After running thru the test, we focused on free walk, 20 meter circles at walk, then trot, then finished with upward transitions.  We had our first lesson on working with contact - Lex has been helping me with this so the concept is not brand new to Riva.  My trainer was very happy with Riva's willingness to try and not get angry. 

Working on circles with contact:

 

On the upward transitions, she helped me with Riva's tendency to push her nose out when going into trot.  We got a few decent transitions with Riva remaining on the bit and ended with that.  I took Riva for a nice walk out around the property after the lesson.  Such gorgeous March weather!

Cooling out walk:
 


I spent about an hour after our lesson mane pulling.  And I am less than 1/2 way done...

11 comments:

Mona Sterling said...

It must be wonderful to have nice weather and ride outside!! I can't wait until spring shows it's face around here.

Jessica said...

good luck at your show this weekend :)

SprinklerBandit said...

Haha, I am a master mane puller. Practice makes you faster. Good luck at the show!

Jessica said...

Riva is super cute.

Miranda said...

Good luck at your show this weekend. Miss Diva looks beautiful (:

Kate said...

wonderful photos! thanks for sharing!

Malin said...

Cant wait to hear how the show went. You have worked Hard, put in a lot of training. You are ready. Go kick butt

Hillary said...

Good luck this weekend! Riva looks great! I am getting very similar weather here in KY and my gelding is a sweaty mess at the end of our rides. Cant wait for all the shedding to end!

Amy said...

Looking fabulous! Have a great show! Where are you showing?

Kelly said...

Amy - showing at LeeAnns, Come Again Farms this Sat.

Thank you all for the comments!

Achieve1dream said...

Hey! You better not steal the most photographed horse in history title from Chrome! I need to get outside and start taking pictures again. When he was younger I used to take soooo many. I literally have almost 10,000 pictures of him. I went and counted them and got 9,631. That's not counting videos, cell phone pictures or pictures of the other animals that he might also be in lol. Yep, not stealing our title. LOL! Sorry I couldn't resist.

Yay for the upcoming show! So exciting! It sounds like you had a great lesson. Seeing more good than bad is always awesome. The fact that she's happy with you lessoning completely on Riva now is huge too in my mind. :D I LOVE that last picture. You both look fantastic. Good luck at the show!!