We played in zone 5 with driving. It took me a lot longer than I was hoping to get us back in "sync." Or maybe it just felt that way to me! We grazed and drove our way to the arena. Played figure 8 around some cones outside the arena to which the first time Duck just pretty much gave me the finger and didn't want anything to do with it. So I switched sides and made it so she'd have to go up/down a little hill (and over grass) while figure 8'ing and increased the energy of the "send". That did it! And we got some good figure 8's on the 12ft line with the hill.
Then we went in the arena and I did a few things on the ground such as sideways over a pole, and then I just decided because she was so distracted (there were about 5 other horses in the arena jumping etc) that I would just have her stick to me a bit and we practiced hindquarter disengagement from the ground.
I mounted up and Duck is getting a little too good at going towards the mounting block. She wants to go over it while I am standing on it sometimes! The nice thing was that when I got on she stood quietly for a couple minutes. That is a good improvement over her needing to just move right then. In fact her energy overall was less than I expected for the amount of time she has spent inside with the rain and me not being able to go play because of sick kids etc.
Started where we left off last riding session. Doing downward transitions. This time since I was in the main arena I used some outside line jump standards as the visual markers. The first 4-5 times she still just wasn't getting it. But then after she became "gate sour" for a minute I put her on the cloverleaf pattern and she was stopping in the middle rather quickly. So we went back to the original exercise and then towards the end the last one we did was really nice! She stopped pretty much right at the standard just off my seat! Yeah! Mixed in with this was also upward transitions, including into 2-3 strides of the canter (which the first time I thought she was going to buck but she didn't) and then back down to a trot. I then did a few trot/walk transitions at the standards and ended there! I still can't get over her canter. It is just SO up and down I feel like she is going to toss me every time! More fluidity practice I guess!
Looks like on April 18th I am doing a Parelli Demo at our barn for the Parade of Barns. The Parade of Barns is a fundraiser for a theraputic riding center in Huntersville. Basically they are selling tickets and there are 10 or so barns locally that will have demo's, lessons, etc. Our barn will be doing the Parelli Demo, UNCC Equestrian team demo and a lesson demo as well as pony rides all day.
I didn't want to do this all by my lonesome so I recruited a Parelli friend that is very close to being done with level 3 to help me, and hopefully some other students at the barn that are familiar with Parelli will too. Should be fun stuff although I admit I am a nervous about talking in front of a possible crowd. (That would be my very introverted personality. LOL) GULP! So we are working together to come up with what to say/demonstrate so far!
This is the website if you are local or want to check it out -
1 comment:
Best of luck with your demo... yeah i know they can be nerve wrecking lol! but you will do amazing let me know how it goes...
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