Wizard Ride 144: I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

Thursday, 5/13/10

A crisp, cool and sunny May afternoon… perfect for a ride. The arena was a little damp from recent rain, so the footing was superb. And superb footing tempted me to set up a little cross-rail and some trot poles for our ride :^) Mom was at the barn so I recruited her to be the photographer- she got some nice shots to show Wizard’s progress.

We started with some walk and trot work. Wizard’s coordination at the leg yield is improving and he is becoming more responsive and less resistant to leg pressure. We did some circles, serpentines, and big-trot-little-trot work. He started out on the energetic side and settled pretty nicely into work, even though it was feeding time.

Once I got a little impulsion and a little contact with the bit, we headed over the trot poles a few times. Once, he leapt over the last two poles and cantered away, but for the rest of the trot work was quite good with nice rhythm and balance. We trotted over a cross rail twice, and he was wonderful. He broke into a canter after the second jump, and felt round and willing.

After the jump, we did a little canter work on each lead. He picked up his left lead perfectly, and took only one effort to pick up the right lead. We cantered a little more than one rotation in each direction. He is quite springy at the canter and improves with each ride. He gets a little nervous, but settles as be becomes more balanced.

It feels greatly rewarding to have such progressive and fun rides after all our work. I love it when a plan comes together…