4/24/11

Yesterday and today we had great rides! It's been windy but she does just fine in the wind. There was some distraction yesterday while we were riding in the arena, and it was really good for her. She spooked twice and got over it.

Her canter transitions are getting So So much better! She picked up the left lead from the trot as soon as I asked and "clucked" just perfectly towards the end of our session. Such a good girl and no spooking or fussiness. I have to use a LOT of leg and urge her on when we go left, she wants to drop into a trot. Think we'll do some lunging next week at the canter to the left to help build her muscle better on that side. She started dipping again today mostly going to the right. That is my bad, I noticed my own position from the pictures today, and when I felt her doing that, I tried shifting my weight hard and we got better at it.. kept doing 20m circles at the canter. She's really holding herself and staying better balanced now though.

We also practiced dis-engaging the hindquarters, half-turns on the forehand, and turning on the haunches. We haven't done much turning on the haunches work so we started some of that today and she did decently. Got irritated with me at first because she didn't know what I wanted, but she figured it out pretty quickly. So proud of my big girl... She'll be 4 here soon! AAAH!