Used Renegade for transportation today...rode to a neighbors house a few miles away and had a nice ride. Renegade was a bit unconfident on the ride over and we had to work through several thresholds but we made it from my house to Cindy's in about 40 minutes. We got a little lost one time when we took a wrong turn but got back on track and found her house. Renegade handled the road traffic and the ATV's just fine, it was a couple of trash cans and a bag of burnt trash in the woods that got him. He didn't spook but had to take a good, long, hard look out of both eyes lol!! The other thing that got him was the utility boxes for the telephone and cable lines. We just took our time working through it.
When we got to Cindy's, Renegade suprisingly didn't want to greet her horses. He's usually the one that is sooo ready to touch noses over the fence but not today. Not sure what that was about? Cindy wasn't home so we started back home. Renegade was much more relaxed on the way back home and it took us 1/2 the time to get home. He was so relaxed I decided to try some trot/walk yo-yo's and we had fun with that.
When we got back home we played with opening and closing the gate which gave us a chance to play with a bit of finesse and sideways to and away from the gate. Having the gate on Renegade's left side was no problem, he lined up all zones easily next to the gate. With the gate on his right he lined up zones 1-4 with the gate but he wasn't confident enough to put his zone 5 next to the gate...it was out about 1 to 1-1/2 steps. Played with that a bit and eventually we were lined up on the right and I was able to fasten the gate. We stayed there a while, resting.
After our rest at the gate, we rode 20 meter circles at the trot and I played with pushing Renegade's hq out instead of pulling his nose in when he lost the pattern. It worked great...by pushing his hq out, his nose came back to the inside and we were back on the circle!! I think I accomplished two things doing this; working on hq yields and NOT using my reins to micro manage his zone1!!!
After the circles we moved to follow the rail at the trot and since Renegade had good impulsion I decided to ask for the canter and got it. It was a nice, relaxed canter and I kept my butt in the saddle and actually felt a bit of fluidity at the canter. Whoot, Whoot!! Canter on the left lead was easier than the right. On the right lead we had to try three times but Renegade finally got it...we did 5 strides and came back to the trot. Another Whoot, Whoot!!
I decided that was enough for one day and Renegade was being so calm and attentive, I removed his bridle while I was on him. We spent about 15" with me just being a passenger while he moved about eating grass. It was a nice, friendly way to end our session. When it came time for me to dismount, I got his attention by tapping his rump so he would lift his head. I asked permission to get off and did while he stood perfectly still. Once I was on the ground he went back to eating. I asked him to follow me over to a log and unsaddled him there then hung with him for about another 15" while he nibbled grass.
1 comment:
oh wow what an awesome day! sounds you both had a lot of fun!
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