Day 202

I was determined to have a good ride today after feeling pretty bad about my rides the last couple of weeks. I marched right into the barn and told Harry who's boss.

Instead of playing around with the rope halter and longe line, longeing without any tack on, I cleaned him up and tacked up, going out to the pole in the arena to longe with him. As soon as we stopped walking he wanted to bolt out and start longeing but I made him wait until I was ready to start working with him. I looped the pisador around the pole (darn, I should've taken a picture) in a way that if he pulled, it would tighten the part of the jaquima that is built around his head, behind his ears and apply pressure, but it was also easy enough for me to release if we got in a dangerous situation without either of us getting hurt.

Today was probably the longest amount of time I've spent longeing him since we had decided that he had the basic idea, way back two years ago. He ran around that pole like a bat out of hell and it was okay for me because he wasn't dragging me with him due to the poll taking the force of him because of the knot. We worked at longer distances and shorter distances, both directions. It was easier for me to get him back out longeing when he fishtailed out and wanted to back away (which he couldn't because of the knot) and continue working. After galloping around for a long time, he calmed back down into a reasonable gait and we stopped.

For the longest, I've been switching between the barbada rein and the bit rein when I ride, using the barbada rein to warm him up and the bit rein when we're ready to perform. Today I used both reins at the same time. I think that it had more of an effect on him because his speed was easier to control. We also worked on flexing while walking, something I've never done with any of the horses before, but I know that it's a good stretch for them while they're warming up. He got the general idea flexing to the outside wall, but more often than not he thought I wanted to reverse when I wanted to flex to the inside.

After getting him collected and right where I wanted him where he was being responsive and performing, about an hour into our ride, I tied up the barbada rein and just worked off of the bit. He was a little jumpy at the transition at first, but settled right into it, with the last 20 minutes of work being fantastic. I could not have been more proud of us! We both ended in happy moods and accomplished what I wanted, which was to longe better and be more collected in gait. I still have to work on finding the exact speed of largo that he likes without pacing or breaking.

When Harry and I were all done, I got on Brie. My ankles were hurting, so I rode her without stirrups. At first I was just  going to walk around with her because I wasn't using the stirrups, but I got up the courage to go through a full session with her, working her corto and largo and everything! She got upset a couple of times when Nick came up behind her with his horse, but she always does this. This is why we can't show, she hates horses being too close to her. I need to figure out a way to fix this, so if you have any suggestions, please tell me!

Eventually, I got enough bravery to canter her without stirrups. It was fantastic! I felt like I was flying and was perfectly able to balance myself. I was literally grinning the entire time. Too bad I never have a camera! Argh, I swear, I need like a personal photographer following me around.