Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I did, and my Ogilvy half pad is on its way so I am very excited! Today I rode the hunter/ jumper pony I mentioned on the 18th. He was fantastic, and we worked on asking for lead changes. We started with just doing them in the centre of the ring, then we started doing 3 loop serpentines over fences, and asking for the lead change 3 strides after the fence in the middle of the S. In the end, we worked on just the middle fence and getting the lead change over it. Pony was fantastic! I am riding him again on Tuesday and I cannot wait. 🙂

Today I rode the green pony again. The goal was to simply keep her going and not allow her to break from the canter. We set up arout 6 jumps and created 2 courses and one jump off. She was great! She wasn’t the fastest, but she kept cantering and she tried her hardest. Some of the turns were sharp and considering she doesn’t have her lead changes consistently, she had to do quite a few simple changes very quickly. She jumped all the jumps cleanly and in my opinion, she was amazing. She can only get better from here! 🙂

Today I rode the OTTB mare again. She was quite excited but it was a fun lesson, and we worked on transitions, squaring corners to the jump, and getting the best take-off spot. We also worked on keeping a steady, smooth, rhythmic canter. She was great, and after our lesson, we took them on a walk to a grassy field to graze a bit, which was fun for the horses.

Today was a good ride, I rode a great hunter/ jumper pony. He has picked up the habit of falling in, so I worked on shaping him out and pushing him deep into the corners. He also has a kicking/ bucking problem around other horses and moving forward, so I tried to just squeeze him on with my legs and not let my body or hands get involved. This seemed to work for him, and overall he only kicked out once when he would usually be kicking and bucking. Apart from that I just kept him away from the other horses. Since he is quite experienced, he has learnt to find his own strides, often taking off to the jump a bit long. I tried to make him wait and take a better distance, so he gets used to the rider helping him find the correct take off spot. It worked for the most part, and he only took off long a couple times. He is becoming a lot more responsive to the rider, which is the ultimate goal. Overall great ride, hope I can work with this pony again sometime. 🙂

Rode the pony again! She still was resistant to the canter, throwing a kick or buck there but we worked over a couple 18″ fences to work on striding, approach, and the ride away. The weather is still not normal, but we’re starting to think that she just isn’t getting out enough which is why she’s acting up. She is being exercised less because of the rain, and the turnouts are flooded. I switched off with my friend who owns the pony ( she was riding the 8 y/o OTTB I mentioned a few posts back), and I got on the OTTB. We worked on the same thing – transitions and the fences. We also worked on shaping out in the corners. Good lesson overall, we are going to keep working on the pony.

Rode my friend’s pony again, and I don’t think she’s happy with the weather. She felt very lazy and bored. We tried to mix things up, but it was hard when she wouldn’t pick up the canter. We decided to turn it more into a training session for her, correcting her when she didn’t pick up the canter with a half-halt with the inside hand and encouraging a bend. Once she picked up the canter, we went on the circle and tried to hold the canter since she breaks quite easily. We also did a figure eight over a little 8″ cavaletti, and encouraged a lead change. In the end we jumped about 2’3 on a circle, since despite her being green and holding some bad habits, she is a very talented jumper. It will just take some time to train her out of her habits and finish her.

Today there was a rainstorm, so while I still rode since we have a covered arena, conditions weren’t great. A quarter of our arena was flooded despite the high walls in place to block from wind and rain. However, we still managed to exercise two wonderful horses, me on an warmblood type OTTB, and my friend on her pony (the one mentioned in my previous post). It was really great fun, he was such a sweet ride, and while he was stiff at first and bucking a little bit when we cantered, once we got going and he was fully warmed up, he really loosened up and flowed. He tends to chip into jumps, but by the end of the lesson he was getting perfect spots. We only did 2ft since we didn’t want to push him, especially because of his stiffness, but he was great and I’m sure with regular exercise and enough warm up to get out of the stiffness (it’s pretty cold as well so his joints may be having a hard time), he will be a great hunter for someone (he’s only 12 y/o)! Awesome day overall (especially because I love rain)!

Rode my friend’s fairly green small horse today! It was very fun, she was so energetic! I could tell she was having a lot of fun though. I took her over a little 2 foot course and she was great. It’s clear that she really enjoys jumping. She was very sweet and such a friendly horse. 🙂

Today I rode the OTTB mare again, and she wasn’t quite so happy. She was kicking out a bit, but she still jumped great. Just one of those things that we had to deal with, since we checked her over and she was fine. We think she was simply energetic. Halfway through my lesson, my friend and I switched horses and I got to ride her Arabian mare. She was very fun, forward to jumps and energetic! Excited to go, go, go! 🙂

Today I rode an 8 y/o OTTB mare. She was so sweet! She has some trouble getting the correct lead sometimes, but she’s a fantastic jumper and a great ride! We worked on really getting to the fences fast, and then compressing and setting the horse up 3 strides out. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad we’ve started to train for the next shows! 🙂