Wizard Ride 44: Let Your Earth Quake, Baby

Monday 2/2/09

Perhaps it was the 3.0 earthquake we got here in Jersey, or perhaps it is all the weeks of careful training, but Wizard was feeling goooood today. A little too good. Sarah hopped on Wizard and began warming him up before our lesson and he was feeling much friskier than usual. He did not misbehave or do anything dangerous, but a few times, he jumped forward from a walk into an extremely speedy trot without being asked. He was not spooking, it looked like he was just feeling good.

It took a good 20 minutes for Sarah to get Wizard to stretch down and start to bend a little bit. She rode about 30 minutes and he never broke a sweat! She mostly worked on pressure and release: take contact and ask for a little bend, release when he gave to the pressure. She kept him on a very large circle (20+ meters) for the duration of the ride. Sarah also remarked how nice he felt, even though he was a little fresh. He was moving out nicely and taking contact. He has a very soft mouth and when he’s relaxed, it’s a pretty picture.

After Sarah was done, I rode for a few minutes at the walk since he had already finished his workout. I was really impressed how well he took contact! He was striding out nicely and accepting the bit. We rode all around the arena and he felt really good- he did not try to trot out of the walk, probably because he was relaxed after his ride.