July 5, 2010 online and mounted

On-Line
Saddled up in the arena with rope on the ground. Z was nervous about the white saddle pad, so we played a tepid catch me game, and then I spent a lot of time having her sniff and rub it. She went internal for awhile, which was very interesting. I didn't put the pad on her back until she relaxed. Saddle was not a problem.
Used the shims for the first time today. More on that on report below about the ride.

Played at walking in harmony, with carrot stick laid on withers, patting zone 3 if need to move forward. At first she was confused by this, but after a bit of practice understood what was wanted. Have to keep her attention when turning away from her. Good at slowing down, and after a couple of miscues, good at halting.

Touch it from a greater distance using carrot stick to direct nose to object. This worked well. Was able to stay 3-4 feet away from cone.

I had put a pole on the ground between two cones. The pole seemed to worry her, and she spent more time than usual sniffing it. To start with I moved her away from it, rather than asking her to go over it. This was interesting given her complacency with walking over the cavaletti two days ago. I wonder if she was testing me - to see if I'd revert to pushing her over? Later we worked on moving sideways over it, quite difficult. I should not have tried this, given her hesitance to walk over the pole, but should have just moved sideways along it. Next time!

Under Saddle
Shims made a noticeable difference. I was able to sit back without having to slump so much, it was easy to keep my lower back in an upright position, without flexing it inwards. I could feel her hips, and her stride was long. It was easy to carry the carrot stick and stay in position.

Nice walking on the rail and changes of directions. Worked on leg yielding using carrot stick. Difficult going to the left off right leg.

She's still dashing off at the trot. I changed to asking for a trot while her head was bent toward wall and disengaging her hind quarters. This helped a lot. Whenever she sped up I went back to that position and it slowed her down. I was able to do a lot of sitting trot after this.

Trotted once over the pole - and then she went into a walk (patted her and went to the rail). Afterwards she was really worried when we went by the pole that she'd have to do it again so I just circled or changed directions.

Cantering - her shoulders came up during the transition into the canter (although it was harder today than last ride to get her to canter), and she stayed round during the canter to the left, even going up the wall a bit without speeding up. Nice. To the right, more strung out and fast - my fault, I still go forward. When I could sit back it was better.

Lots of nice stuff today.