More Boot Camp

After the last boot camp with Beth, I didn't get a chance to ride again. I had to work 8 - 8 Saturday, which turned into 8 am to 10 pm. Poor ponies didn't get dinner until 10:45! And then Sunday it was raining and gross and I went to Dover and it took a lot longer than I thought. So no riding. :( But... I did get my new riding jacket exchanged and new reins and more hoof polish. And I ordered Danny a new leather halter. So... it was productive.

Monday was another boot camp day with Beth. I got there in the morning and rode Tucker. He's gotten much better since the first time I rode him. I really like him. We were in the ring since it was so wet in the fields. Beth set up two  barrels with wings on a large circle and we worked on me. She had me trot him over both and work on my position and not dropping him. I was having problems when we got to a deep spot. I would half halt to ask for the add, and then drop him - no leg, even throwing the reins at him. FINALLY at the end, I managed to half halt for the add while keeping my leg on and not abandoning the reins. Yay! This was going to be so helpful for Fleck. Fleck doesn't react so much when I do this to him because he's used to it. So it was nice to have Tucker to ride and spell it out for me. After riding Tucker I did a chiropractic adjustment on him and then we got Nike out. I did the same exercises with him. He's so much fun too! He cracks me up. He's so cute with his upwards. It's like he gears up and then explodes into them and then immediately settles. Hee hee. He was fun too and I got much better at getting and holding the engaged canter while keeping my leg on and immediately sitting back down and getting the canter back after the jump. Yay! Then after Nike's ride, he also got an adjustment. I then adjusted L.C. and Atlas. Then I had to stuff my face.

Then it was Fleck's turn. Poor guy had been standing at the trailer, but he was munching on alfalfa and had the geldings in the pasture to hang out next to. I got him tacked up and we flatted him. We worked on getting him round and soft and straight, upright in both shoulders. We also worked on my position... keeping my right shoulder up and back. And wow!! We got some good work from him. He's really getting quite fancy! I had to get him really stretchy and loose in the warm up. Don't waste any steps!! Ride like a professional! No more farting around.. make every stride count. He's only got so many left. So we worked on getting him supple in his back and then gathered him up. By lifting my right shoulder up and back, it allowed me to not be sitting and digging so much with my right seat bone, which allowed him to lift that right shoulder. I just need to make sure that he's really bending through his ribcage and whole body, not just his neck. So then we worked on collecting the canter into a small bouncy canter. It was tough! Fleck thought so too. But he did it. I just have to keep my leg on. After that we moved on to the canter serpentine. Beth said I have a tendency to move his neck too much. I guess I thought I was supposed to change the bend as we went through the serpentine. I think I thought that overbending him to the true bend/canter bend was "cheating". So... I had to work on keeping him bent to the inside and moving his shoulders. It was tough! But he also didn't fishtail. Of course the first time we did it the hard way, we couldn't turn. Ha ha!! We started our counter canter and then just carried on across the ring. Hee hee. doh! But we got it. Yay!

So lots to work on but I'm excited. After I finished, Beth hopped on to try some flying changes. Whoo hooo!!! Going from the left to the right, he nailed it!! It was clean! Sure, it wasn't super collected and he leaned in a bit, but he was clean. :) Going the other way was much tougher for him. He ran through two of them before he got them. But he did it twice his hard way! Both times were clean, albeit not pretty. But still, clean!! YAY! Good pony.

We finally  headed home. It was a long but fun day!