A Nice Day Today

Spent some time with a friend today practicing patterns and freestyle riding. Renegade started out a bit "up" but quickly relaxed after a bit of FTR and some trotting circles. The big breakthrough today was riding the weave at the trot...Renegade was following my feel and riding where I was looking...no reins involved. The problem we had was coming around the "ends" of the weave; Renegade kept breaking down into a walk. I think we need to take a bit of a wider track around the ends for him to maintain the trot. I plan on trying that tomorrow.


We played with the Question Box pattern and had lots of fun with that but definitely need more practice although did come through the center nice and straight twice which earned him a rest in the center!!

We also had a bit of a go at a "mini" precision pen with a 10m circle riding arcs to the points. That was a lot of fun but I need to get a lot better at my focus to help Renegade. I noticed when my focus was good and I was looking in the correct place, Renegade did well; when I lost my focus or was not looking far enough ahead, it put Renegade off track and we wouldn't hit the points correctly or our arcs would be wonky. Eeekkkk...I need more practice!!

A friend, Ingrid, loaned me her Parelli Cruiser saddle to try out and unfortunately I didn't have a girth small enough to be able to ride the saddle on my horse but my friend, Terri, let me ride her horse since the saddle and girth fit him. It was awesome riding Beau...he has a BIG, swingy trot compared to my little guy, Renegade...his trot is so little like he is!! I have to say...I enjoyed my ride in the Cruiser, I felt very secure even though the saddle and horse were both new to me. I felt very comfortable and confident in the saddle. Unfortunately, I don't think it will work for Renegade but I think it would be a great saddle for my other two horses. I may just have to start saving up for one of my very own!!

We ended up having to call it quits before we really wanted to as the sky got very dark and the thunder and lightening started. It's good we stopped when we did because the skies opened up and the rain began to pour down right after I got Renegaded loaded on the trailer!!