Night Rider Redux

Ah, the glowing Pet Sematary eyes... gotta love the flash

For being in the midst of a cold snap, this evening was surprisingly pleasant. The ground wasn't frozen, so I figured what the heck, P could use a ride.

We just rode behind the barn. Even if I wanted to go down to the ring, it wouldn't have been the best of ideas. The fencing on the farm is being replaced and today they started on the section between the ring and the road. Maybe it's a mental thing, but I like some sort of barrier between my horse, myself, and the cars whizzing by at 55mph.

P was pretty darn good, although she usually is when we're riding near the barn. She was relaxed and listening from the start. We warmed up with a few large circles and changes of direction, just focusing on staying long and low. We picked up the trot to the left first, her bad side. She wanted to get a little quick on the downhill, but was responding to my half-halts perfectly.

When I asked for the trot to the right, she decided she'd prefer to canter instead. And made her opinion on the subject known by throwing in a squeal and crow-hop before coming back down to the trot. I am not sure what's up with this attitude lately, but at least it was pretty contained tonight. We did a few W/T transitions to the right just to make sure she understood that trot means trot, nothing more.

We wrapped up with some circles of various sizes at the walk and a few turns on the forehand. Her turns on the forehand are awesome so long as we're alongside the fence. When we venture away from the fence line it's like I'm speaking a foreign language. Now her circles were PERFECT. I know that doesn't sound like much to be excited about, but lately P has taken a liking to trapezoids. Despite keeping a strong supporting leg on her, she wants to lay in and put corners on her circles. Tonight she was straight, connected, and round. The only thing I did differently was I used more of an opening inside rein instead of asking with a direct rein. Maybe I was over-estimating her steering abilities before?

I will say the great thing about riding in the dark is the self-awareness of how much you use your eyesight to gauge things like straightness, speed, balance, etc. You have to feel everything. It makes me understand why some trainers give blindfolded lessons on the longe line. It also makes me wish I had ridden with one of those trainers, haha.