Riding the OTTBs

After checking on Katai yesterday Lisa invited me out to ride in the new arena. She's asked me to stop and ride with her even once I'm fully moved out and I happily accepted. It will be good for me to ride a fully trained horse and fun to still spend some time hanging out with Lisa.

Last night I started out riding Missy who is a small, at least for an OTTB, Bay mare who is in her late teens. She hasn't been ridden much and is stiff but after 15 minutes of warm up and some very concentrated leg yielding and proper circles she was moving extremely nice. It was really fun to really RIDE again and to feel the difference in Missy after some correct riding.

While I was riding Missy I noticed that Lisa was having some trouble with Liv, who is an awesome 2nd level Dressage horse, and I asked if she would want to switch. She did so then I climbed on Liv and worked on getting her to slow down and not blow through the aids. She had cantered the day before and was hot and could only focus on cantering. It took about 10 minutes to get her to actually listen and stretch out softly into contact rather than lifting above it and running through all aids.

Overall it was an awesome ride even if I'm extremely sore and I really look forward to doing it again :-)