Monday, September 12, 2011

Cooling Off...

This past weekend, Max and I were actually able to get in some nice riding since the temperatures finally dropped to a more moderate 80-something range. :-)

On Saturday, Max and I put in some time drilling with Warhorse. We spend most of our time learning to do a couple of new manuevers that are actually quite complex, even at the walk (we were definitely NOT ready to do them at a trot). Basically, the figure consists of line, dvidied into three pairs (with about 15 feet of space between each pair). The basic idea was for the rider in each pair to execute figure eights with their partners. In practice, it the middle pair have to choreorgraph their moves with the inside riders of each outside pair.

In the process of working out the spacing, several of us managed to cut too close to each other and we wound up banging knees- THAT hurts!

It was an interesting sesson and we'll probably be doing more work on this in the future. Max was definitely cooperative, even when one of the horses didn't want to cooperate and wound up crashing into his haunches- I thought for a moment he was going to kick out but he didn't. He just gave the other horse a dirty look. :-)

On Sunday, we did our usual lesson and we worked more on our flying lead changes. We're both slowly "getting" them although we have a ways to go- sometimes he understands the cues, sometimes not. We also worked on half-passes and those went pretty good although Max tends to trail his hanuches a bit- feels like a fish-tailing car. We'll need to work on that a bit. :-)

Afterwards, since it was still pretty (a pleasant surprise), Max and I did a quick ride around the Hansen Dam Basin- he wsa definitely energenic (more so as we headed home...). It was nice not frying in the sun for a change.

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