Today Duck got a lot of grazing time. About an hour and boy was she happy! The field has really greened up and grown with all the rain we've gotten recently. I scrubbed out Duck's water trough since it was empty and then filled it. And then the pasture across from her was empty so I scrubbed and filled that one. It reminded me of when I used to work at the stables as a teenager. We'd always scrub out the troughs and fill them; and then drink right out of them! I didn't do that today although I was tempted!
After I was done for the evening working I went and got Duck and we played in the lower arena. I actually rode her from the barn to the arena, bareback (no pad) in our halter! The only grief she gave me was getting past the hay field although she gave me a very nice (and fast) sidepass to the right to try and get to the grass. Why are all my horses grass monsters? I must make them that way. Too much grazing time? But with Duck I feel really bad because she used to be out on a few acres in Illinois and grazed all day. And now her little turn out pen has NO grass at all. So I try to let her out to graze, a lot. On the bright side she will pretty much always meet me at the gate. (cookies are good too!)
So we ride to the arena and we rode for awhile. It is almost like the break we took has helped stuff settle. I didn't feel like I was getting the responses I wanted off my seat before we had this forced break of weather and housework. She was still really impulsive, and didn't want to slow down. Today was much better. Not perfect but I felt like she finally is trying to "tune into" my seat somewhat. As a bonus our sideways is getting lighter as well.
We did a little weave pattern, ground poles, and a couple rounds of figure eights at the trot. She just doesn't like that stuff though. I am going to watch the patterns again and see how I can expand on some of the things we are doing, move it up a notch.
It is so nice having her so light in transitions. I mean so much more so than a lot of horses I have ridden. We even cantered. She tried to buck the first time and I stopped her. Then we tried again and we went almost a half an arena length which is the most I've done with her in a very long time! The nice thing is she slows right down. I still need to figure out the bucking thing. I wouldn't mind riding her through it but my seat isn't what it used to be when I was riding a lot more often (which was over 10 years ago!) Duck just has such a different canter to me. It is SO different. I don't know if it is just so different or I was just so used to Kira for so long. It feels like I am flying up and down and the whole time she is trying to buck me off even when she isn't!
Then I got off and decided to do a little liberty. Shanna was playing with her cute paint Dakota in the arena. Duck stuck with me the whole time. We did the weave, sent her over the ground poles, cantered stick to me. Couldn't get a close circle today. I want to play with getting our lead by the tail lighter. I feel like it takes too much pressure still!
All in all it was a very fun ride! And to boot we are going to be able to build a playground down by the pond! Now we need to get some obstacles rolling for it! Yeah! I am so excited! Arena's can be SO boring, no matter how interesting you try and make it a change of scenery will be nice!
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