Getting Back to the Swing

Well, basically since Thanksgiving, Charmer has had very minimal work. School, work, and life got busy, and pony got a break. There were some lazy rides, and a handful of semi-work rides, but basically I snuggled him twice a day with his grain, and maybe a blanket change, and usually a nice long grooming session once a week. That was basically all I could manage for a while.

But now, I am starting to get my schedule a little more manageable (a little), and constant. And the days are rapidly getting longer, and with the beautiful weather we are currently having, I cannot pass that up.

I squeezed in a ride on Wednesday after work, and for the fact it had been over a week since Charmer's last ride, and over 2 months since he had any real "make him work" rides, he was good. Sometimes I forget how challenging of a ride he can be. He requires a lot of precision from me, and that can be difficult, especially when we are both out of shape (okay, more me than him). And he was hot under the collar, since I made him work right at dinnertime. Horse worked his booty off though.

We both had some rusty moments, and sometimes our signals kind of crossed, but we had a really productive ride. I even spent about 3 minutes working on my sitting trot (work in progress), and it didn't feel horrible. Although my abs felt it on Thursday morning!

I know it doesn't look perfect, but I tried! I'm a little more "chair seated" than I would like, and I want to encourage more forward motion from him, but its a start! I felt like I stayed off his mouth decently, and didn't feel like I was flopping like a fish out of water while sitting!

Reach!

Last night I got another ride on Charmer and ended up working on almost the exact same things as we did on Wednesday, just with a little more canter involved.

We did a lot of lateral work on both rides as well, which he nailed - even if he was a little sassy about it. I've worn spurs the last couple rides, not to encourage any forward (don't need any help there), but it immensely fine tunes his lateral movements. I can send him out across the arena with barely a touch. He can be kind of bull headed sometimes, but he is awfully sensitive as well.

Wearing my favorite 1/4 zip from OTTB Identity

All in all, it feels like a great start to our year and hopefully we will be getting in a solid program again very soon! Hopefully going to get a lesson in the next 2 weeks, and start adding some jumps back into the equation.