We managed to squeeze a few rides in over the weekend. Saturday it was blustery and sprinkled on and off in the morning before it cleared enough to get a few hours riding in the afternoon. The horses were "spunky" to say the least. I put a tom thumb bit in Jessie and rode her around out back. I was trying to be very gentle with her, really I was, but she was a bit pissy about the whole ordeal. I switched to the snaffle for the ride.
We did some of our trotting exercises and did a lope around about a 75 yard track made by some dirt bikes. I think this is fun because there are a few "S" turns and I can try and change leads and, again, the one supplying all the power was less than fully committed and we had to do it a couple of times to get it right.
Sunday was overcast and we went out to try some long trotting. I had my GPS on and we tried to go for a mile at a trot. The city farm we were riding on has bees set up in a few areas and we happened to run into both of them. The longest trot ended up being about .8 mile.
My body position is getting better at the lope. I can feel myself worrying less about Jessie and more about where my hands, feet and shoulders are. She's getting better with her lope too. I probably asked for it about 10-15 times during a two hour ride. Some of the lopes are only twenty yards or so, some are longer. There are times she picks up the correct lead (the one I ask for) almost every time.
The days are getting short and it's hard to fit in all the stuff I want to do...
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