Goddard Park

Ok! Where were we?

Thursday had a not-so-great ride in the indoor at night. Things just felt off. I couldn't get a really forward gait from her, and I felt like I was riding her neck, not her back. She was in a pretty bad heat, so I have that some of the credit for her carousel-like-action. Maybe the saddle was in a weird position, too. We w/t/c, ran through a dressage test once or twice once I got her a little more forward, and called it a night. Ride time about 35 minutes.

Saturday actually had a pretty decent ride. We went in the indoor during the day because when I got there it was POURING out. Much better about forward, and when I used my stick on her shoulder to get her to keep cantering, she swished her tail but kept going. Fair. Worked on some softening stuff, she's really getting it. I think it's helpful that I don't ask her to be soft every ride, the whole ride. I feel like that might create some tension, so instead I've just been working on asking her to be soft, releasing when she does, and then asking for some sort of transition. Kind of like what Mugs talks about trying with her young horse on one of my favorite blogs. Elle's been figuring out on her OWN that it's easy to stay soft through the transition, which is pretty awesome.

Sunday a friend of mine from work, Jessie, agreed to come trail riding with us at the beautiful Goddard Park. This was only Elle's 3rd time ever trail riding, and the first time we had to trailer somewhere to do it. I went and got Pepper, Jessie's mare, first, mostly because I wasn't sure if Elle would kick out if a horse came up behind her in the trailer. I'm almost positive now that she would not. After a brief (3-4 minute) struggle with loading, we were off!

Got to the park after an easy drive and unloaded. She stood tied with no problem for me to saddle her up, even though she wanted to stretch down and eat grass (I tie them tight enough that they can't get their heads down below their knees...less of a chance of getting caught on something/tangling themselves up). I had brought a mounting block because I'm an old wimp, so I hopped on after minimal adjusting. Went into the ring to see if she needed to be warmed up at all, and after about 5-10 minutes at the w/t/c (mostly trot), it was clear that she did NOT need to be warmed up. She didn't care when Pepper went back to the trailer and she couldn't be seen, and only called to another horse once. I asked for some through work in the ring, got it, and decided that I was NOT going to work her hard before the trails. If she needed to be worked after, I was game, but I wanted to set this up to be as fun for her as she would let it be.

And let me tell you, did she let me relax!! I would say that 95% of the ride (3 hours or so) was done on a very loose rein (buckle or almost buckle), and while she spooked twice (no idea what about), once she jumped around she settled right back down. There was none of the nervous energy that I had gotten from the past 2 trail rides, no jigging, and she was completely present the whole time. I will say that I think she likes being in the front better, but I'll have to test that theory some more - Pepper is a little girl with short legs, and she doesn't walk as fast as Elle. When she was in the front, Elle may have really just SEEMED to be up her butt a little bit because she's got a bigger stride. We encountered runners (one of which came up behind us stealthily without announcing himself), kids, bicycles, dogs (both leashed and not, grr), people, cars on the road, water, other horses, everything! And there was nothing she was truly worried about. At the real beach, she didn't love the idea of getting next to the waves - but Michael explained to me a long time ago that some horses have an issue with the water coming up to meet THEM. I didn't force the issue, and we went into water up to about her knees at the boat ramp. We'll work on the ocean thing sometime when there's less people at the beach. The other thing she was nervous about was a guy sitting on his bike letting us pass that decided to throw his hand out to try and pet her as we were going by and he was about girth-area. No spook, just a cocked ear, a sideways glance, and a curve of her body. No thanks, sir, I'd rather you not pet me.

She was ALSO really great about hills and trailblazing. Hills had always kind of been a sticky spot, because she was hesitant about going down them, especially if the footing was questionable. Not on Sunday! She was completely willing to go straight down them instead of a) putting on the brakes or b) serpentining down them. Her balance is getting so much better and I think she's starting to trust me.

There was one hill that we would NOT take the girls down, frankly I don't see how people take their horses down it(if they do). It was really darn steep, long, and had hard footing with roots sticking out the entire hill. So, we ducked through the woods to go a safer way, and even with vines, trees, leaves, and pine needles, Elle picked her way through and was very compliant. Good pony! On an aside, I thought maybe I was being a wimp about not taking her down the bad hill - we came back the same way, and when we got to the hilll, looking up it, we decided to definitely not go UP, either. And I'm not a chicken about going up! So it must have actually been pretty treacherous.

Now that I know how GREAT she's going to be, next time I want to trot/canter more (we only walked and trotted a little bit), AND take my camera so I can get some pictures!!!

Yay Elle!!