Well today I got to ride again. I am so happy to be able to ride pretty much every day so far (but the weekends of course because of the show this weekend and last weekend). I decided to ride in the saddle today. My goal is to ride in the saddle as much or more than bareback. I am still riding bareback because I can't completely forsake that. I like it to much..hehe.
Well I didn't ride down the strip today. I decided we are just going to walk around here maybe throw some trotting in but I am going to work on my legs, hands and body positions and sit right:) Well it went pretty good. It is going to need a lot of work. I am realizing before I can even really work on dressage (the more in depth parts) a lot I have a lot of things I the rider need to work on. Navajo also has things I want to work with him as well. Responding to walking/trotting/cantering more quickly, moving his hindquarters and forquarters better and a few things like that. He does really well though and has improved a lot since we started working on things. But I also know that dressage is something that is and cannot be hurried. I don't want to hurry it. We might not move forward much and seem like we are staying in the same place for a while (training wise) but I would much rather get it down pat than have to come back later and retrain/redo something:) Get the foundation right the first time and we should be good. Not saying review isn't good, it is:)
Anyway about the ride. We first walked around the big yard and mainly walked. I worked at keeping my hands still and in the right position (read a bit about that today in HI)..That went ok;) I also got him to move his hindquarters as well. Then we headed up back and went behind the cattle barn. I did some trotting but mainly worked on him walking straight (which sets a good foundation for him to trot straight which is our problem :D..he usualy does but not as good as I want him to). I guess what I am doing is refining/fine tuning what we know now so that it is in good shape when we move on. Then I got him to move his hindquarters around again. I trotted him up in front of the hayshed and got him to do some more trotting :)
I then got off and backed him up the hill (a little one). I read that is really really good for developing a horses top line. I guess we will see. I want to do that a couple times a week. Also I learned that you shouldn't stretch your horses every day because that actually doesn't help them in the long run. If you stretch them three times a week that is better :D I am learning a lot...hehe. Then we headed back to the barn for a grooming session:) Overall it went quite well and I was happy with our ride.
p.s. Sorry for the bunny trails so to speak;)
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