thinky chestnut mare
Jan. 8th, 2009 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowgym: (now officially changed to Exercise, because): no gym, but 1/2 hour of shovelling and one hour of circus later in which I will climb fabric for the first time in months
horse: check
fabric thing: 1/2 done, paint needs to dry before i can proceed
Rode Kaboose for 1/2 hour bareback. I feel kind of defensive about doing so, but I love being right ON her back and feeling her right in my seat bones. Plus, it is January, so what am I working on besides having some kind of fun and trying to reconnect with my love of ponies and riding and yadda yadda?
We did a lot of walk, and a surprising amount of trot with me feeling very stable and good. I tried holding a whip across my thumbs to keep my hands steady and low, and moving my hands like handlebars instead of leading with my right hand all the time. That made me more careful of my hands on all counts, and apparently i was softer or better somehow because she was much softer and rounder in my hands than previously.
The canter departs are iffy - some bad combo of me leaning forward anticipating, and the horse plummeting onto her nose instead of me waiting and holding until she enough oomph to leap forward into a canter. Plus cantering makes her tuck her nose and tail and offer to buck, with her ears hard back. And think about going faster even though she doesn't really (that is hard to describe but what it feels like). So I am certainly approaching a canter with a certain grim and defensive attitude which is not doing either of us any good. I tried changing that - easy trot, to lots of prep, to easy, calm canter depart. That worked better at the walk, except then she seems even madder about it. So I will go back and forth on this, and see if we can destress the canter departs, because certainly the walking and trotting were completely gorgeous and worthy of first level tests.
I would like to take a moment to acknowledge that I live in a really beautiful place. It isn't breathtaking, or horrendously scenic, or dramatic, but it is routinely lovely in ways that make me bery very happy. Today the ice was sparkling on every single branch and twig on all the trees of the Holyoke Range as I was driving along beneath the northern edge of it, and the sun slanted across the fields and the snow glistened and it was wonderful. I used to crest the hill before the University (usually on my bike) going to school in the mornings and say "It's another beautiful day in the Pioneer Valley." (unless it was another rainy day, or another snowy day, or whatever)
Anyhow, I want it to be on record that I lvoe where I live and really the only drawback is that we are too far from the ocean. Which we can fix with sea level rise, if Hartford will just lie there quietly.
horse: check
fabric thing: 1/2 done, paint needs to dry before i can proceed
Rode Kaboose for 1/2 hour bareback. I feel kind of defensive about doing so, but I love being right ON her back and feeling her right in my seat bones. Plus, it is January, so what am I working on besides having some kind of fun and trying to reconnect with my love of ponies and riding and yadda yadda?
We did a lot of walk, and a surprising amount of trot with me feeling very stable and good. I tried holding a whip across my thumbs to keep my hands steady and low, and moving my hands like handlebars instead of leading with my right hand all the time. That made me more careful of my hands on all counts, and apparently i was softer or better somehow because she was much softer and rounder in my hands than previously.
The canter departs are iffy - some bad combo of me leaning forward anticipating, and the horse plummeting onto her nose instead of me waiting and holding until she enough oomph to leap forward into a canter. Plus cantering makes her tuck her nose and tail and offer to buck, with her ears hard back. And think about going faster even though she doesn't really (that is hard to describe but what it feels like). So I am certainly approaching a canter with a certain grim and defensive attitude which is not doing either of us any good. I tried changing that - easy trot, to lots of prep, to easy, calm canter depart. That worked better at the walk, except then she seems even madder about it. So I will go back and forth on this, and see if we can destress the canter departs, because certainly the walking and trotting were completely gorgeous and worthy of first level tests.
I would like to take a moment to acknowledge that I live in a really beautiful place. It isn't breathtaking, or horrendously scenic, or dramatic, but it is routinely lovely in ways that make me bery very happy. Today the ice was sparkling on every single branch and twig on all the trees of the Holyoke Range as I was driving along beneath the northern edge of it, and the sun slanted across the fields and the snow glistened and it was wonderful. I used to crest the hill before the University (usually on my bike) going to school in the mornings and say "It's another beautiful day in the Pioneer Valley." (unless it was another rainy day, or another snowy day, or whatever)
Anyhow, I want it to be on record that I lvoe where I live and really the only drawback is that we are too far from the ocean. Which we can fix with sea level rise, if Hartford will just lie there quietly.
