Mr. Mort and I went on an adventure
Saturday. We rode in a clinic with
Britta Johnston at Riverside Equestrian Center.
Mort isn’t well-traveled in the horse show life, so I am always so
impressed by how happily he jumps into the trailer and settles quickly into a
new place. I had never been to this
facility before, but I really enjoyed the tidy barn. It looked well-run and was spacious. Mort was given a stall in the main aisle
making us close to everything.
We settled in a watched the lesson
before mine to get a feel of everything.
They were a touch ahead of schedule so I ended up getting on about 3:40
but we still had time to wander around and look at the arena, because Mort
thinks that looking at himself in the mirrors is necessary. There are a few spots in the videos of my
lesson that Mort definitely glances at himself as we ride by one—silly boy. We did a few laps of loose rein walking
before starting our warm-up.
The lesson was great and definitely
a wake-up call for how much more Mort is capable of giving me. In the first ten minutes or so of us working
Britta pointed out that Mort does what I ask, but only gives me about 80%. A lot of the lesson was me making him give me
100% via my body position and actually asking him to. That was really the moral of the story.
While the main take-away from the
lesson was stepping up our game we also did play with a couple of fun
items. After our warm-up we played with
some half steps with Britta holding a lunge whip. As far as getting really good quality half
steps we only got a few, but the work really helped when we went back out to “normal”
trot. He came under himself a lot more
which was a lot of fun!
Mort and I have not done much more
than some very shallow loops and counter-bending in canter. Saturday we started with some shallow loops,
but Mort gave me a flying change (unorganized) and we just kept the counter
canter. We were on the right lead and he
stayed it in perfectly and easily for several times around. More counter canter is definitely on the
agenda for the future.
We ended the work playing with some
extensions. He was a bit tired by this
point, so none of them were awe-inspiring.
But he did free up his shoulders some and push well from behind. Definitely more things to play with and work
on. The weather is supposed to be nice
today, so I am hoping that we will be able to go outside in the field and play
with these some more on a fresh Mort.
I just hand walked him on Sunday
and Monday we went on a bareback trail ride.
It was really nice outside and I forgot my girth in the trailer (which
was now parked at BM’s house). Another
easy day mentally and physically for Mort won’t kill him. He and I both enjoy trail rides and they’re
full of good, muscle-building hills.
The
wonderful BM videoed my ride, so now I get to spend this week reviewing those
over and over again so that I can really focus in on our main problems and how
to fix them. Feel free to catch a few
moments of them as I’ve put the links below.
The third video around the ten-minute mark has a very exciting canter
depart as it was after our half step work and he was really amped up. Silly Mort doesn’t always know how to express
his exuberance.
https://youtu.be/pgQOjSu_h-c (First twenty minutes working on quality of
gaits and my position)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X8wSX5mUKEY&feature=youtu.be
(Short clip that went beyond the 20-minute youtube cut-off)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZedAYD-Ntrw
(Last twenty minutes has half step work, counter canter, and extensions)
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