Weekend Recap

     Mort and I had a fairly good weekend. Friday blew in with a 40 degree drop in temperatures. The wind was biting and the sky was cloudy. In spite of this, Mort and I were going for a ride. We started in the indoor for the beginning of our walk warm-up. It was significantly less windy in there so it gave us a chance to get the blood flowing before heading out into the wind. We did some more walking out there--focusing a lot on getting better leg yields.

     Our trot work slowly improved throughout the rough week last week and he was fairly good on Friday. We did a lot of changes of direction and leg yields; I really tried to focus on straightening him out before asking for a new bend. He was a touch more animated than normal and still sorta stiff to the left, but it was cold and I really do think he was doing his best to listen.

     I threw in some canter work. I tried to focus on some counter canter and some square turns to really get him more even in the reins. Straightness has definitely been the name of the game lately. We did a few canter sets each direction before letting him have a long rein walk break. I think he was finally really warm and starting to think. I decided to work on our walk/canter transitions since he was so happy and forward thinking.

     He's really starting to get these. We're not really show-ready; especially since second one asks for so many in a row in the three loop serpentine, but they're happening. He struggles more with the right lead than the left. He picks it up and almost gets stuck in a shuffle for a stride before he really gets going in a canter. He is very good at going from right lead to left lead with not much walking in between.

     He was feeling so good with that that one of the times that I was on the right lead and we were counter-cantering on a straight side, I switched my seat bones and lightly asked for a flying change. I honestly just wanted to see what he did. He felt uphill and light and definitely was giving me a good quality canter. He swapped over with absolutely zero drama. He wavered a bit but mostly stayed straight. I was very happy with him. I admit that I'm not sure I could get it to happen again so easily, but it's good to know he listens to my seat (and that I haven't forgotten to use it sometimes). I don't plan on really putting his changes on until next winter, but every once in a while it'll be fun to throw one in.

     We did a few more walk/canter and a little more counter canter because I don't want a horse to have auto changes out of the counter canter. I know one change won't do it to him but I'm going to really, really make sure that he knows to wait for me. I also finally got a good left lead canter to trot transition. He'd been tense in these all day and finally relaxed into it--which I immediately rewarded with some stretchy trot. Two strides of happy left bend after canter definitely warranted the end of the hard work. We did some more stretchy trot. I've been touching on haunches-in at the walk in every ride, so we played with those some too. He's getting them now, but he does still think that they're pretty hard (which they are). We did our final cool-down walking inside out of the wind before fully calling it a day.

     Saturday was even frostier than Friday, but with much less wind. I opted for a bareback ride to help keep me cozy. We started out with a walk along the fence line wrapped in a cooler. The pasture horses were all running around so Mort was a bit bouncy, but he stayed under control for me. We mainly worked in the trot and he was really good. When I did canter his trot after was amazing and bouncy in the best sort of way. He was really good and just flowing through transitions in bend and gait like it was second nature.

     After a particularly good trot set all of the horses started bolting from the back of their turnouts toward us so I just opted to hop off and call it a day. He wouldn't have taken off, but he would have required some more work to get him back to me, and since he had been good so far I didn't think it was necessary.

     He got Sunday off because I had other life things to do. Hopefully he's good today for our lesson in spite of it. The weather is crappy and misty (again) so we may be stuck inside anyway.