Boo! December 31, 2007
Posted by kimayars Arena Work (Horse)
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Ahhh… I think I’ve almost made it out of the “Christmas Hole”. Just a few more days…
I had a FABULOUS ride on Ray. Or Gorbag. Or Hochnarr. Yeah, the name Ray isn’t doing it for me. I may just change his name again. We’ll see.
But today we had a wonderful ride. We have started to introduce the leg yield, so today we worked some more on that. Or rather, we discovered all the bad habits that resurface whenever I work on a new skill. But [Ray] was a very good boy. We started with counterbending on a circle, yielding in and out to help him engage his butt. It was kind of cute to watch him go through his little bag of tricks to try and avoid the work. He certainly has come a long way, though. His frame has really improved since I got him in June. I’m very happy with his progress. We then took it up a level to a counter-bend figure eight. It’s just like a figure eight but you start off in counter-bend. Then, when you cross the centerline onto a new circle, you switch to counter-bend instead of riding it in true bend. It blew his little pony mind. After a break we played a bit with my position in the leg-yield. I’ve got a lot of work to do in 1) keeping my inside heel down to weight the seat bone, 2) staying tall in the saddle and not hunching, and 3) not locking my hips. Unfortunately, fixing one of these things causes the other two to go to heck. It’s going to take some work.
The epiphany I came away with today was that I don’t think to much about giving releases on the outside rein. I need to make my outside rein more “inviting” so that he’ll want to be there. I will be working on a kinder, friendlier outside rein.
My foot is only just a tad stiff in the morning, so I think it’s okay to try and run on it. Generally, it’s been great so I can’t really think of a reason why not to give a run a try. I think I’ll call Beth today and see what her schedule is like. Worst case I’ll see Sherene at the gym on Thursday. I’m feeling a bit bloated so starting up the running again will be welcome.
Lisa sent out an e-mail about the Kirkland Half-Marathon. I perked up a bit. Another half-marathon? Hmmmm…
Happy New Year!
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