Respect

I feel like we finally turned a corner in my lessons. J has had respect for me from the beginning but had none for Katai. I really don't blame her because Katai has been a little brat and has made my life more difficult that a more well trained horse would or just a horse in general since ponies are pure evil.

At my last lesson Katai was far from perfect but she listened and wasn't trying to rear or flip like she had been. She was relaxed, calm and sweet. I could tell that it changed how J felt about Katai.

This weeks rides have sucked. I've honestly been less motivated than I was for the past few months and Katai was back to being really tight through her back and resisting again. We were having some luck towards the end of my rides but I've felt like every time I had to go through the same struggle all over again. Of course this is why I have a trainer :) 

At tonight's lesson Katai started out horrible. I have no clue what was going on with her but half the time she was trying to bolt on me and the other half she just wanted to stop and stand or lazily walk around. 

I. Had. No. In between.

For about three seconds during my warmup before the previous lesson finished I got a nice trot so I quit on that and went into my lesson. J is a miracle worker, seriously. It's not that Katai wasn't horrible at moments it's just that she helped me change it, showed me what I needed to do next time and helped me get some of the nicest trot work that I've ever had with Katai.

I can't wait to go back now and try to recreate it!

In other news here is proof that we've been working hard.

I've been cleaning tack every couple of weeks and it's still getting this dirty. I can't do full cleanings more because I have to have pizza and every other week is more than enough pizza.

Yum :)

Next week I'm running in Ragnar and won't be able to have my normal Thursday lesson so I'm having a makeup lesson with a different instructor this Saturday. This is someone that I haven't ridden for or even around so far since she doesn't teach many lessons. I'm looking forward to having another person coach me and it is always good to get a different opinion. Sometimes one instructor just has a different way of describing something that will click with the rider.

It is sort of throwing off my scheduling though since normally pony gets Friday and Saturday off and I ride three of the remaining four days before my lesson. I'm still trying to decide what makes sense for a schedule this week. At any rate I'm trying to be better about blogging again and will post an update after Saturday's lesson!

Sweater Weather

It has been insanely warm here lately. Yesterday it almost made it above freezing and today it was all the way up to 40. I was literally in a sweater tonight when I worked with Katai and it was wonderful.

She was pretty keyed up when I started. It seems she's suddenly developed an attachment with one of the geldings in her field. The funny part is that the guy she chose happens to be the only other horse at the barn that is ridden dressage and he's about 17 hands of brown and white paint. They make an interesting couple.

Once I mounted up she was all business just like normal. I've been lunging her beforehand working on trot/canter transitions and today I tried walk/canter transitions. I've been using a very specific cue to get her to move up to a canter for the reason that I knew it would help under saddle. With her workman like attitude tonight I decided to go for it and asked for a canter after we had done a bit of trot work. She sprang right into it and it was a great smooth, balanced canter. I was so proud of her!

 I have been struggling a little on getting any type of consistent contact. She is young and green so it's not something I'm worried about, it will just take some consistency but she is the toughest horse I've worked with in that regard and loves to go around inverted with her head in the air so I've enlisted help. D and I spent some time chatting tonight so I have some ideas and we are going to set up a lesson as soon as we have an idea of what the weather will be like.

I put more mastitis drug in her frogs but this time my phone had died from the cold so I still don't have pictures. Tomorrow I'm going out again to take advantage of the warm weather. I'm hoping that in these next couple of applications I'll start to see some type of change.