The guys rolled and dragged the ring for me this weekend, and the weather was nice enough I got to ride outside for the first time in about five months. I had Sarah ride Werther outside on Monday, since it has been such a long time since he was out of the indoor. Sarah said Werther was very good. I went to take Werther outside and he was sure the new statue in the picture above my Mom had delivered that day, was some kind of horse eating demon lying in wait for him. After some dramatic giraffe poses and snorting, he pretty much got over it and we went into the ring and got to work. Werther was fine, but I didn't ride very well last night. I had two days in a row off, so my left leg was tight and I had trouble keeping that stirrup and my balance was off, I had to work really hard to sit further back and get my center of gravity where it should be. On the circle I had some trouble being effective pushing him away with my leg, and he kept falling in on his shoulder. The canter transitions were slightly better, but no major breakthroughs. The one thing I am really happy about is that I memorized the first intro level test and road it for the first time. The second half was much better than the first half. We were really good about having a clear define bend in our turns, and the circles were decent. The biggest challenges are going to be keeping impulsion (especially since I have to look like i'm not making an effort in the ring!) and the upward transitions. The hardest one was after the first halt, he walked a little crooked off, because I didn't have enough impulsion. I hope he gets just a tiny bit jazzed at the shows, it would really help me out!Good news, Wesley is still hanging in there! Dr. Sarah came out and looked him on Monday, she thinks his swelling is down a little bit, and when I saw him on Tuesday night he seemed very bright eyed a chipper, in spite of his current difficulties. We are going to monitor him very closely, but this is better than I ever hoped for. I talked with Dr. Sarah tonight, she agrees with me he is a tough old guy, if any horse could pull though it would be him, he certainly likes deifying the odds.
3 comments:
Go Wesley! How wonderful to hear good news! :D
Yes, I hope the good news on Wesley keeps increasing.
I have a question: what does it mean when the horse "falls in on his shoulder," or "drops his shoulder"?
Moosefied- When you ride your horse in a circle, he should be engaging his core muscles and his whole body should bend from his mid-section. If a horse is lazy or green, they might attempt to not use there whole body and just bend from the shoulder, and the horse cannot balance properly like this, so they fall in. This can also happen if I rider is using too much inside rein and tries to bend the horse from rein alone, instead of using the inside leg and asking the horse to bend around it. With me a Werther, it is probably a combination of him being lazy and my tendency to want to use too much hand because I have a weak leg with my disability. If anyone else can give a better explanation, please do!
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