Yesterday, Dancer and I had a lovely ride. We rode in the bridle with our new d-ring extra soft but with three links - the centre one is copper. Dancer seemed to like it and was quite responsive.
We warmed up out in the obstacle field then headed out for a trail ride. It was 23 degrees C so I hoped the bugs wouldn't be bad. Unfortunately the deer flies were out in full force. We quickly left the forest and headed back to the obstacle field.
Here we met up with two other riders. Dancer and I played with the gate, small log jumps and the pedestals. I set up the one jump to 2.5 feet and the other a touch higher. We began on the mound off soil, walked off, breaking into a canter, then down through a large ditch and up over the two jumps and back to the top of the hill, what fun! Dancer and I completed numerous versions of this and each time we stopped at the top, I am sure he was asking what's next.
I am practicing an exercise that leads into the flying lead change. First you ride, at a walk, a figure 8 stopping in the centre each time. Once stopped you ask your horse to take two steps with the hind away from the circle you completed and gently ask the head to come around, asking for the next circle in the other direction. Practice at each gait stopping in the centre each time. Once this is going smoothly for both you and the horse, you are ready for the next step...but yesterday I wasn't!
Today, I rode in a pull bridle on loan from my friend. It is a bit big, but with a few holes it will be perfect. We rode in it anyway.
I practiced the exercise leading to the flying lead change and voila we did it. As I came around almost to the centre of the figure 8 I asked for the two steps, which changed my position in the saddle - moving my hips, then I asked for the head bend and there we were, a perfect lead change. Thinking it was a fluke, I did it three times each side! Can't wait for tomorrow when we can do it again! Oh and we had some jumping fun in between for a bit of fun!
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