Dusty
Between work, school, and the days getting shorter it's been tough, but we've been getting our riding in on the weekends. Except for last Saturday when it was raining, we generally go out for about a two hour ride on each weekend day.
We've been moving faster and faster lately. We used to spend about twenty minutes warming up before a trot. Now it seems once we get to the first available spot to trot, we do. And, in places we have previously been reluctant to lope because of a narrow road, dogs, or other stuff, we've been loping. We've been doing a lot of loping side-by-side too. It's great fun. A new field got cleared last week and it had some really nice footing for loping. We had watched the NWC dvd on "Cantering with Confidence" and took some of those principles out with us to see how the horses would do.
I know it's a philosophy that one should not ever stop learning, but the horses are doing great. We are having a wonderful time on our rides. Of course neither one of them is ready for a reining competition or anything, but for what we are using them for, it's darn near perfect. I have been re-thinking some of my training goals and, until time becomes more available, if Jessie stays at this level, I'm okay with it. She's a pretty darn good horse...
