thinking ahead

I had a great ride on Thursday. Lucy warmed up nice and long/low on a loose rein, but when I picked up some contact she got a bit self-righteous about it and gave me the mare face. Below is a video that shows the progression in just a few short minutes from "hell no" to "I'll consider it" to "ok that sounds good!" I think this video, which is unedited, shows her growing up big time. After working on the flat, we jumped around a bit and I was really pleased that she was able to keep it together to canter up the little step into the ring and then go straight to a jump just a few strides out. I like to keep her thinking about what is coming next so that she doesn't lose focus. You can see her wanting to get silly after the pile of logs, but I kept my leg on her and didn't let her pull the reins out of my hands (hence the head tossing), and looked forward to the next challenge (in this case the step). Once she realised it wasn't play time and she needed to pay attention, she was good to go!



Lucy might be used for a clinic in October that focuses a lot on groundwork, so before tomorrow's wedding I am going to tune her up a bit on the ground and we will incorporate some groundwork into each of our rides from now til then. Here's some video from today, first of her getting some energy out in the indoor and then of going through some basic groundwork:



Next weekend, we have a hunter pace on Sunday and then I signed up for Valinor Farm's fall schooling horse trials on Columbus Day (Monday Sept. 8). I can't wait! We are going to do Elementary again and I just hope we have a safe and solid day. I don't expect ribbons but I do expect to complete all three phases. We need to do some brushing up on our dressage test and the hunter pace will act as an XC school to get us in gear.