Keep One Leg On Each Side

Keep one leg on each side of the horse.

Sometimes important to remember.  (Unless, you are a man riding in the previous post's sidesaddle class ;) )

Saturday, I decided to go ahead and ride the Mare in the outdoor arena while a friend rode the filly.  It took a few minutes to convince them that they could actually walk down the driveway to the outdoor, but that was fine.

There is a gelding that was left behind in his pasture that he shares with SFF & SFM and usually he is quite quiet, but holy buckets, he just about lost his mind.  The SFF is typically all business undersaddle, but the Semi Feral Mare does have her nickname for a reason and she is in full blown heat.  Shenanigans.

We arrived to the outdoor and she was being a little prancy.  I went ahead and added leg and asked her for a trot and she decided to buck.  Well, her version of bucking is more like slamming on the brakes and popping her hind end up, but still I wasn't expecting it.

Fortunately, I didn't really go anywhere, but I certainly didn't feel like parting company with my horse. 

The filly, on the other hand, was quite well behaved during this whole ordeal.  Go figure.

A lot of trot circles later and some bending and counterbending work and the Mare seemed much better behaved. 

Tonight, I went ahead and worked them both again.  It was really hot and humid here.  It said ninety degrees (F) when I left work, but the humidity makes me feel rather like I am being broiled.  I waited until a bit later for the heat to being breaking. 

I admit.  I kind of wimped out because I decided that perhaps the Mare should just be worked on the lunge line and sweat a little.  It's been a while since she has been just lunged and tuned up.

She really did quite well with a minimal amount of fussing.  I primarily worked on strengthening her walk to canter transition as if I just let her canter, she'd rather race around dumped on the forehand, but with more transition work it keeps her mind better engaged.

I then decided to school her a bit in halter.  Now, I have shown halter, but I really don't know a whole lot about teaching them halter, but I am curious if she had the basics put on.  In the rope halter, with a whip, she did seem pretty astute to "whoa" and standing still, but who knows.  She doesn't really know how to give through the neck or reach towards the whip, but for my purposes I don't really care.

My goal is to take her to a fun type show that my friend is hosting at the end of August.  There are Arabian and part Arabian classes, but also and 18 & over (horse's age!) halter class and I thought it would be fun to enter.

There's also a Most Classic Head Arabian class, which might be fun for the Mare as well.  

Halter what??

I then decided to work the filly under saddle.  She was quite good.  She is getting better on being mounted from the left side (her original preference was the right).  I put down a couple of ground poles for her to walk and trot over.  

She seemed to enjoy the poles and didn't hesitate at all.  We have to work a bit more on carrying a rhythm, but for my purpose, I am happy to have her engaged in her environment.

All in all, a couple of successful rides.  After all, horses got ridden and no one ate dirt.  ;)