Wizard Ride 149: Cross Training

Thursday, 6/2/10

Wizard seems to thrive on variety. When possible, I try to spice up the routine. We do a trail ride once a week or sometimes every other week. We ride in the deeper outdoor arena and alternate with the shallower indoor arena, and also ride in the smaller outdoor dressage court. On Thursday, it was time to ride indoors and do a little work over trot poles and a few cross-rails.

The weather was very warm and humid. We warmed up at the walk, followed by some trot work in circles and serpentines. When he was responding nicely to leg and hand, we did a little lateral work, leg-yielding in each direction and starting just a whisper of shoulder-in.

Between the trot work and the canter work, we did a little trotting over poles and X’s. I set up four trot poles, and Wizard trotted through them with style. He is learning to round his topline and relax as he trots the poles. I do my best to keep my hands soft so he can stretch into the bit. After the poles, we took the cross rail a few times. My mom took pictures. The first few times, Wizard trotted the jump and he cantered through it once. I allowed him to canter since I wanted to encourage his forwardness. The top photo is his cantered jump. I hooked my pinky into his mane so I would not punish his mouth when I released over the jump. I’m not thrilled with my release- I like my release much better in the bottom photo. The other thing I see in the photos is that I am pivoting a little on my knee. I need to do some work to stabilize my leg. I was very pleased with Wizard, though!

We did a little cantering in each direction- he picked up the left lead after one try and the right lead after two tries. He is able to move more forwardly in the indoor arena since there is less cushion to the footing. With every ride, he improves.

Once he was cooled out, he got some well-deserved grazing time. And on Monday, the equine chiropractor will be here :^)