Practice Ride 2/21

On Thursday, I went to the barn in the morning for my practice ride on Asti. I had only ridden him once before in my lesson on Monday, so I was hoping that he would be good! He seemed to have a lot of energy, so we worked on a bunch of transitions at the beginning of my ride to make sure that he was actually listening to my seat and leg. Next, we did some three and four loop serpentines to work on bending and suppleness, and then some shoulder-in and haunches-in to loosen up his body and help him balance between both reins. I tried to keep my inside leg from sliding too far back during the shoulder-in. Finally, we did some canter work. He was very exuberant at first and jumped into the canter faster than I was expecting. This was probably my fault because I gave him a long walk break and then picked him right up into canter - I should have reinforced my half-halt at the trot first before making the transition. Anyway, as soon as I remembered to sit back and ride him uphill with my seat while keeping my hands still, he calmed right down and the canter became much more manageable.

Just testing this out! Jessie - Rita and I went to the barn last Thursday for our practice rides. I rode Riley and he was a good boy. :)