Getting Things in Motion

This week is April Vacation for me which means lots of Falah time yaaay!! I didn’t come out Monday because I went on a campus tour of the Universityof Vermont which was really nice.  I can’t believe I’m already looking at colleges!  They had a really nice barn there where they breed their own stock of Morgans so that was pretty cool to see.  In the back of my mind I kept comparing each horse to Falah (he won every time 🙂 .)  By the time we got back (it’s a 4 hour drive each way) I didn’t have enough time to play with Falah.  So today I did a lot.

But before I talk about today, let’s talk about last Wednesday.  Last Wednesday Falah and I cantered without being on a line and not in the round pen!!  We started off the lesson with lots and lots of trotting.  Switching directions at the trot was surprisingly easy and Falah barely needed encouragement to keep going.  The farrier was doing a bunch of horses too so there were lots of people and horses going in and out, and horses lunging in one end of the indoor.  I thought this wound be a bit of a problem for Falah, but he was perfect so we cantered in one direction in a circle and in the other around the whole ring.  He was a superstar that day, I was so proud!!

Today I trotted him around the ring for about 15 minutes after free lunging him, lunging him, and going through all the games.  I then let him wander around the ring before the next lesson came in and he rolled right away.  He was really good today as well and you can definitely see a huge improvement from even the past month.  We’re now trotting almost as much, if not more, than in a regular lesson and are starting to canter!!

Here’s some videos from Wednesday; one of trotting and two of cantering.

Happy Easter/Passover!

On Saturday I did TRY to get a nice Easter-y Spring photo of Falah in a Spring bonnet, but he didn’t like it too much at first.  After a lot of face-making and head tossing he finally gave in to the flowers adorning his ears and stayed still long enough for a quick shot.

He was a bit unsure about the hat, but I forgave him 🙂

Because it was show day for many Century Mill riders, Jen did not have class (they had to be at the barn at 3:30 a.m.!!!) but I stayed after with fellow classmate Jen P. who worked with Jingle; a cute little Paint pony who is progressing well in class.  I let Falah run around in the indoor a bit before hopping on with the bareback pad and trotting around a few times.

I’ve discovered that Falah likes riding in the indoor a LOT better than the round pen.  I’m not sure if it’s because we usually work in the round pen so he associates it with hard work, or because he likes having the more open space to trot.  He was pretty peppy and only put his ears back a couple times when I initially asked for the trot (only using my energy, voice and legs) and would then put one ear forward and one back at me while trotting happily.  Even with the added distraction of Jingle, Falah was wonderful.  We ended with The Friendly Game of the Easter hat and called it a night.

Today I had a hard day planned for Falah.  Jenifer is teaching me a better and more efficient way of changing Falah’s direction while he is in motion. I catch his eye while he’s trotting/cantering around and draw him in to me.  As soon as he looks at me, I run at his shoulder swinging my stick and he changes direction.  It sounds easy, but it took a few times for us to get it.  At first he would turn into the fence because I cut him off too sharply and he would turn the wrong way (I want him to turn towards me because he should never have his back end towards me if I don’t want it) but I got the hang of calling him in while backing up at a run.

So Happy Passover or Easter or Spring or whatever you’d like to celebrate!!

This video is from Saturday’s session of Falah and I trotting in the indoor.  He looks great, doesn’t he?!

 

 

This week

Yesterday I had a great ride on Falah.It was tough because he was really grumpy and besides that there were people and horses walking by a lot.  At first he did little hops and then as the owner of Century Mills and President of Lucky Horse, Jai drives by he lets out a buck, but I ride it and then continue to the “make stage.”  He eventually gives in and trots a full circle in a working trot, and I tell him to stop. I let him be done for the day because I think we made some progress because he actually got that doing what I asked was easier than me nagging him and him bucking.  All in all it was a great day and I l;et him graze on the long grass for a while before putting him away and putting hot compresses on his tick bites which is helping to reduce the swelling.

I am going again today to work him maybe in the indoor and I also have my riding lesson.  I’ll try and get some video footage of his grumpiness for next week if I can!  It seems like we never have the camera when it’s most needed.  😀