He Can Do It!!!

Today I had an awesome ride on Ben!!! Days like today are one of the reasons that I started this blog in the first place. Whenever I have a great ride I wanted to be able to record what happened, how it felt, what we worked on and how he reacted, so for future rides I'd know how to recreate the event. In riding since you are dealing with an animal almost 10x the weight of yourself, who has his own ideas of how things should go sometimes. So, it's a great triumph to have mastered the art of control and create a harmonious relationship between horse and rider.

Although we may not have looked as perfect as these pairs, they look how I felt. Today was one of those days I wished someone would have been there watching me or better yet had photographed or recorded my ride so I'd be able to watch it again and again.
I started out by lounging Ben first since it had been 5 days since I rode last and I had a feeling Ben was going to have a lot of energy and either freak out at everything or put up a fuss and not want to do anything. He has a very extreme personality sometimes. It's very odd, since at times I feel like I have to try my hardest just to make him go forward and then days like today he has so much adrenaline I just have to keep it all channeled in the right direction. His energy proved to really benefit him today and through it all he was able to remain in focus with me.

After walking around the arena once on a loose rein, I picked up the contact and started walking him in a large 4 loop serpentine across the width of the arena. Each time I crossed the arena I had him leg yield and bend little out to make the line curved instead of straight. This really helped to engage his hind end and worked on his lateral flexion. After doing this a couple times, I picked up a nice working trot and repeated the exercise. This is an exercise that Ulla taught me last week and in practicing it today I could really see it's benefits.

I also worked turning down the center-line and leg yielding toward the wall at the trot. Ben responded to this well also, however at times he was a little rushed and lost his forward movement and yielded too quickly.

What I was really impressed with in today's ride was the quality of his trot. It was really forward and had lots of power. He met the contact in my hand and was light on the forehand. His canter was also very relaxed and even and I was able to change it easily from collected, to working, to an extended canter and then back again. Same with his trot, he gave me a very nice collected trot in 10 meter circles and then a great medium/extended trot across the diagonal.

Riding Ben today felt GREAT!!! He has really come along way in his training and I'm very proud of him. I'm so thankful to have a horse like him to ride that makes me work hard and then give me his all and lets me feel successful. It may not happen all the time, but when it does I'll take it! Thanks Ben!!