On Our Way!

I'm a big fat liar.

In my last post, I had said that I was planning to get Stitch going for about a month and then would start working on the canter.

I changed my mind.

We've cantered in two of the last three rides. And he was wonderful!

The first time was last Wednesday, which was his fourth ride in five days. Stitch was feeling it. He was being very good, but didn't have much oomph to his step. 

It was the kind of ride where he's doing everything right, with no need to school anything, so what could I introduce to him? Might as well try the canter!

There were also quite a few people around, versus a lot of my rides when it's just me and whoever is doing chores and probably isn't there to keep an eye on me. So it felt like a good opportunity.

I chose the right rein as it is our mutually stronger side. It took three attempts at revving up the trot through the short end before he fell into a right lead canter along the long side - at which point I immediately lost my inside stirrup. Oops! 

Surprisingly, since I haven't really cantered in almost two years, one-stirrup mode felt pretty good. Nonetheless, I brought him back to trot/walk through the first turn on the short end. We probably could have done the whole end, but I totally wussed out. 

Then we tried again, using anticipation to help by asking in the same place as before. He picked it up faster this time, but also picked up the outside lead, so again we came back down in pace in the first corner. 

I was very happy with the first attempts that were thankfully drama free. And also happy that the canter felt fairly comfortable to ride!

Stitch didn't canter on his next ride, because I put a different rider up on him!

One of my students from my old barn has been trying to come out and put rides on a pony that is owned by a beginner student and needs some tune-up rides. She came out to my barn with me after her lesson to hop on the pony and I figured it was a good time to put someone else in my saddle. It would also be a good experience for her to see what it's like to ride a green horse who still needs quite a bit of help.

Stitch was a perfect gentleman. She's a bit of a nervous rider, and when she's nervous she goes into the fetal position over her hands and gets a bit clingy (she was pre-warned that if she hung onto his face she'd be taken off) but Stitch stayed nice and solid under her. It was good for both of them and I'm hoping it showed her the effectiveness of rebalancing the horse before turning as Stitch needs at this time. 

Monday's ride was a bit late. I had a somewhat late end to my work shift, and didn't get out to the barn until after 7, and somehow wasted a bunch of time getting ready so I didn't get on until 8:30. I had also taken my Pixio out, with the intent on getting some canter video, but half-way through my ride something went wrong and it recorded the opposite side of the ring from where I was. No canter video at all.

This time, Stitch picked up the canter pretty well immediately on the right, got the correct lead, and I kept my stirrup, so we did two long sides and a short end before I brought him back to trot. Then we went left. He got the lead, but it felt a little less balanced (not sure if it was me or him that was more unbalanced) so we stopped before the corner. It was late, and there wasn't anyone there with me, so I said that was still a good win and left it there for the night. 

We are on our way!

I still think our focus needs to be on fitness over the next few weeks. It was supposed to be stupid cold this weekend, so I hadn't started back with the interval training as it looked like it would be over a week again with no riding, but the forecast has completely changed and we're only looking at a couple of days of freezing temperatures (by which I mean extra freezing, not the normal moderate freezing). Thus I'll get the app sorted out and should be good to start that up again next week. I'll add some little canters into it, at this point not timed, just what feels good on that day.

Hopefully the Pixio will work, but I'm a bit worried as something is rattling loose inside the robot. I won't be impressed if it no longer works as it really hasn't had all that much use and has been well stored and taken care of. Fingers crossed that this was just a blip.