Arizona Day 2 Morning

 I was surprised to wake up sore down the back from my neck to my legs.  I`m not used to doing this much canter work and keeping my legs loose and bumping and my arms loose and in time with the horse.  Who knew relaxing could be such hard work.  I was outside at 8 and there`s lots of activity with chores, everyone getting saddled, horses on the hot walker or tied to poles but no riding till about 9.

 The Priefert horse walker is not just for cooling out.  It is programmable for speed, direction and length of time.  The one here holds 6 horses and they are loose not tied.  They are separated by panels which can be electrified, like electric fence, if a horse doesn`t respect them.  The ground had rubber mats for shock absorption with a little wood shavings on it for absorbing dampness.  I watched the horses go around for awhile and noticed with interest that 4 of the 6 were suppling and stretching themselves after a night of standing in the barn.  They would bend and twist their neck first one way, then the other, then stretch and blow while trotting around, an option that would have been limited if they had been tied in the traditional manner of hot walkers.

I got to ride Raisin again today to warm her up for Jade.  I tried to remember the things Al had told me yesterday afternoon (afternoon is not my alertest time of the day).  The first thing I discovered as I put her in to the trot was my front from neck  to belly button was way more sore than my back.  I had no indication till then.  So it`s keep trotting and breath through the pain and don`t lean forward and keep everything loose ( my students are all laughing right now aren`t you).  I worked on loping her, she was really quick and I don`t know how much was her being fresh, how much was me leaning forward and also it was a different pen, closer to the cutting area.  I worked on collecting while remembering to ask lightly with a lift of the reins like a finished horse and then smoothly transitioning to the triangle of inside rein up and outside rein open and back and slowly releasing to maintain what I had gained.  It took awhile.  I could feel her lift her shoulders and then lose them again.

Next I rode Wilma.  I was going to get to work the flag on her (which is like following a fake cow)  and have a lesson with Cody on rein management.  In the warm up I worked on loping.  The first lope to the left wasn`t very good so I tried to work on counter bending shoulders and haunches in, the next one each way was better.  I`m working on loping off straight or even having the shoulders go to the outside but not using so much rein that you get in the horses way of going forward.  Basically it`s asking the horse to lead the lope with his hind end.  I  also worked on stop, back up, roll over your hocks and give me your shoulders.  All parts of body control I knew I`d need for the flag work.

Flag work gave me an opportunity to put correct rein handling techniques to use in a real life situation.  One direction we were really good, the other way not so good. She didn`t want to back straight and would bulge her left shoulder to the flag when backing.  I had to fight muscle memory and habit and make my self concentrate on lifting the inside shoulder and using my inside leg to move her shoulder away from the flag while backing with my outside rein.  Her inside bend was causing her hips to move out and I had to remember to move her shoulders off the flag instead of pushing her hips to the flag.

After the flag work  I walked her to cool out and worked on riding one handed (properly), lifting to fix her, going smoothly to two reins as needed and back again.  I could get her to follow the reins down with 2 hands better than with one.

Next I did a short ride on Irene, there again trying to be as light as she needed me to be.  I knew her right lead could be difficult so I was again working on shoulders out, haunches in.  I had a really hard time in the beginning keeping the forward motion.  It`s a matter of using the reins in rhythm with the horse without blocking them.  We did good with the left lead and I only missed the right lead once but I couldn`t get her to maintain on the right.  Probably so glad to get it I stopped riding.  I was also realizing how tired I was and decided to go have lunch.