Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A nice walk...

Like always, I work on maintaining the balance between leader and partner with Z. Today, I decided to take her for a nice walk. It was the perfect opportunity to spend time with Kendall, help her build her bravery and let Z relax and eat some good trail vegetation. I also got a chance to move my butt and exercise! Everybody wins.

We were out for about an hour and Kendall wanted to use the bareback pad. I was glad because that means she's getting brave again. There are so many hills on our trails and when she rides bareback, she gets the chance to really feel of the horse and build her seat and balance. In the beginning, the downhills made her nervous. By the time we were coming home though, she was completely confident and carefree going downhill. I was very pleased to see a nice change in her!

Z was so well behaved and quite unflappable as we passed the husky breeding property, other horses, the dragging 45' line (want it softer!) and our crazy trail dogs going in every direction. She got to stop and eat multiple times and she was enjoying the calm, easy walk. Kendall of course, didn't want to get off and asked if we could go again the next day!

When we got home, I spent about 20 mins working on a straight back up on the 45' and then some more in the round pen. I'm building up to reshoot the Liberty tasks of sending to the right at a trot. I want our backup soft and easy and I want her to send to the right without hesitation. I also played a little will the bow today. We haven't done that in a while. She's going lower, but I will keep working on building her trust and accepting the littlest tries. We're working well together!

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