Selena Session 44; Wizard Session 114: Teacup Muzzle

Monday, 10/26/09

Selena is a classy Thoroughbred mare. Tall, scopey, old-fashioned pedigree, and refined. Alibar’s old bits fit JR and Wizard with no problem but they are too big for Selena (see photo above). Alibar was more than a hand shorter than Selena but he wore a 5 1/4″ bit.

I did a little tinkering with bits and tried a 5″ loose ring snaffle and it fit her dainty mouth like a glove. Loose ring snaffles tend to run small since the holes at the end pose the danger of pinching the corners of a horse’s mouth, which means she can probably wear a smaller size in other varieties, like a D-ring.

The first thing I noticed when I rode her in the loose ring was that it felt even milder than my KK Ultra that I normally use. I think this will be a good thing for working on suppling and relaxation.

Our goal was to return to the lovely, huntery trot we had last week. I kept the patterns simple and worked on keeping my hands quiet and my weight secure. We worked on a large oval and did a lot of walk-trot-walk transitions, followed by serpentines and figure 8s. I was careful to ride to the very end of each end since Selena sometimes cuts corners when I am not paying attention.

At the end of each ride, I always ask her for a stretchy circle at the trot. This was the first time I could feel her “get it” and know that it was part of the cooling-down process.

I repeated Sunday’s session with Wizard: a little light longeing, followed by the beginnings of long-lining. He is getting better every day. He is still sticky to the right but developing the ability to work a distance away from me to the left. I ended the session with some free longeing- Wizard is so responsive at liberty and it is always fun to work with him.