Ray, you rascal… August 25, 2007
Posted by kimayars Arena Work (Horse)
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I rode Ray today, and it was veeeeery interesting. I decided to start out lunging him (think horse on a 10m leash doing circles around you). Ideally you start out at a walk, then move to trot, and if things are going well you work in canter. Well, we went straight to what I call “canter plus”. As soon as I asked him to move off — BOOM! The fireworks began…
It took 30 minutes before he was listening to me and I had tempo control in all three gaits in both directions. And when I was finished, the arena looked like a mine field. Every time he dug in to buck and bolt, he would leave a 4-inch deep divit that was about 6 inches in circumference. There were a looooooot of divits he left.
We had to take a little break while I did some repair work, and he stood quietly being a perfect gentleman while I pretended that I just played a very bad game of golf.
After the arena was somewhat level, he stood perfectly still while I got on. I went to pick up my right stirrup and ZOOM we were off to the races again. I took a different tactic this time: Instead of letting him “walk it out”, I held him in one spot. He was antsy and fighting it, but I held him back, petting his neck and telling him it was okay. Finally, he stopped trotting in place, then he dropped his head, and then he sighed.
It wasn’t a perfect ride after that, but I was able to work with him a lot more than Tuesday. He definitely has some issues I haven’t figured out how to work with. To clarify, he’s never tried to buck with me on his back (thank goodness). The key is to get him to relax. Once we do that he’s amazing. It just takes a while to get there. Overall I was quite pleased with the ride.
As for the diet today, it started out great. I knew Jeff and I were going to dinner, so I planned my meals carefully. For dinner I had shrimp fajitas, which was delicious and fit nicely within the plan. Then we had icecream. I am an icecream whore. I LOVE icecream and will do anything for it. I ended up topping off my evening with a hot fudge sundae. But I enjoyed every last bit of it!
Workout:
- Type: Other
- Date: 08/25/2007
- Time: 12:39:00
- Total Time: 00:38:29.00
- Average Heart rate: 118
- Max Heart rate: 163
- Calories: 235
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