Arena Vacation

With knowing that some of our issues are saddle fit, I’m a lot more easily frustrated lately.  Training and crookedness are expected problems and something I enjoy slowly chipping away at over time.  Not being able to sit well is killing me inside knowing it is at least partially saddle fit and not issues that I can improve with training.  My frustration generally leads me to drill sergeant mode where neither Mort nor I have fun. 

Looking back, it’s been a while since we’ve had a really fun, good ride.  None have been awful or horrible, but none have been wonderful either.  You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so Mort and I are taking a vacation.  To the best of my ability I am going to avoid the arena for this week.  This is hard for me when I have set goals that I want to work toward.  But if riding isn’t fun I know that I’m not getting Mort’s best work, and we'll both end up sour.  

He got all weekend off because the husband and I went away on a mini-vacation this past holiday.  Yesterday when I hopped on we immediately headed out to the trails (with Emma).  We spent the majority of our time walking and looking at the small sticks/branches that fell during the last storm (because scary).  When we reached a big open stretch I let him stride out in a big, fun, swinging trot.  He was up over his topline and just about as lofty as he could be.  In other words, it was a fun trot. 

After yelling at Emma some for wanting to swim in the stinky pond, we did two long stretches of canter.  He was uphill, balanced and listening (mostly) when I wanted a longer or shorter stride.  It was a touch harder on our left lead, but we ended with an awesome, powerful canter.  At the very least we were having a good time.  Ideally we were also working on building him to be more even over the topline and straight through his body because that is easier for us outside of the confines of a small arena. 

I plan on getting in a few more romps along the trails and in the field to just relax and have fun.  I’ll hit the arena next week a time or two in prep for our clinic next weekend.  I’m really looking forward to that as a kick in the butt to get us out of this rut.  Meanwhile I continue to experiment with pad/saddle fit.