Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Notes on the weekend

Saturday my nephew and his girlfriend came up from San Diego and stopped by for a ride. We spent a couple of hours coaching them around our "arena". Saturday afternoon we worked on getting the house back in order.

Sunday, Ranae rode with her friends and Jessie and I wen out back for a little GW and saddle time. I set up four cones in a square with one in the middle. We worked on going around the cones (all four) then cutting across the middle. We did it at a walk and trot. When she wanted to veer in we would get to the nearest cone and do a bending exercise around that cone and back in the circle. We went both ways and after she had the concept we did it at a lope. She held the circle pretty good and didn't lean much. I had left my saddle a little looser than normal because I wanted to work on my balance and I feel if the saddle is a bit loose I can feel when I'm leaning. We had a good hour to ninety minute workout and I felt she is loping much more comfortably.

This morning (Tuesday) we started on Riding with Confidence Series II from the beginning. One, because I want to make up some barn cards for the exercises, and, two because I want to try to do them in order through the whole series. So, it was about 30 minutes of yielding hindquarters to a stop at all three gaits then bending to a stop at all three gaits. It really did feel good to just have a few things to work on. We got them in and I think she was showing some very good improvement.

Here is a peek at the barn cards I've made for GW II:

2 comments:

Tuff e Nuff said...

Those barn cards look pretty cool!

John Harrer said...

Thanks. They helped my accomplish several things. First, watch each exercise on the DVD with respect to what do I need to take with me out there. It also helps me not forget those exercises I'd rather not do. And, I've put the location of each exercise on the bottom so when I need to go back and look at an exercise I know which disc its on.