Weekend Update

I had a couple of good rides this weekend.

Phantom had her first ride on Friday evening since her abscess popped up a couple of weeks earlier. She felt surprisingly even at the trot and was pretty bendy through her body. I wasn't happy with how the first left lead canter felt - I don't know if she's ever felt like that before. Kind of pulling her body forward instead of getting the rear motor activated. It got better, so I'll try not to dwell on it. 

My leg feels a bit sorer when riding her versus Cisco (Phantom's saddle has a wider twist I think) so I kept the ride short and sweet. Like most of her rides these days.

Cisco decided to hang out with me after I turned him back out. Thus there were a bunch of snoot pics.

 

Cisco was my victim for my ride on Sunday. It took me a bit of time to set the Pixio up in a different location than I normally do - too bad I didn't check to see how much space there was on the memory card. It ran out about 5 minutes into the ride before I picked up a trot. Oh well, another lesson learned.

This was the fourth ride in his new Turtle Top bit. When we picked up the trot he was immediately round and bendy. It usually takes a few minutes (or a bunch of minutes) to get to this point. I've got to make sure to keep him going forward so that he doesn't curl a bit too much behind the vertical though. I can't quite figure out if he's wanting to curl or he's just figuring out his balance and strength.

The canter is a different story though. He kind of turns into a bit of a llama. He's bent around the circle and turning off my outside aids. But his head is up in the air.

I mean, I'd rather his head be up in the air than curled up and his nose towards his chest. I can work with that. Fixing the curling is way harder. 

After riding Cisco has been offering to just stand and chill in the barn without being tied up. I think this is something I'm going to actively try to develop with him.

We did some work on getting the canter transitions with some simple changes on tear drops along a long side. They were much more prompt than they have been - I still need to drop the amount that I ask by like 50%. I've had some nice ones by just swiping my leg back, but more often than not I forget and dig in my heel. I've also realized that I do a chicken arm with my right elbow as he picks up the left lead canter that I need to sort out.

I'm not convinced that this is going to be his bit. I'm not giving up on it yet, and maybe I'll alternate between both bauchers. He doesn't hate this one - yet.