Wizard Ride 155: A Game of Inches

Thursday, 7/8/10

The muggy, buggy days of July. We had a heat wave and many days of no rain. The outdoor arenas are dusty and the flies are bloodthirsty so we moved our ride to the watered, bug-free indoor arena. Wizard had not been ridden in almost two weeks, so it was a refresher, with a pleasant surprise thrown in :^)

We did a lot of loose, stretchy trotting as a warmup and he felt fantastic. Upon inspection of my recent riding photos, I realized that I’m still riding at a dressage length and my jumping saddle puts me in a funny position when I ride long. So I shortened them just one hole so far. Maybe an inch. And check out the difference!

Longer stirrups, not as strong position:

Shorter stirrups, stronger position! Just an inch made a difference.

Once we were warmed up and loose, I let him take a breather at a walk and I attempted a turn on the forehand in each direction. I used too much hand to the left because his whole neck bent around me like a rubber band! I worked hard to keep the impulsion through the turn and we executed a decent turn both ways, especially for our first try. It is an absolute thrill that we have been doing one new thing virtually every ride. I’m so proud of him.

We then worked on big-trot-little trot and I got a few strides of a nice, round trot with really good impulsion. I could feel him bouncing a little. Once, he volunteered a canter and I allowed it because it was the correct lead and then we went back to our trot work. Wizard was pretty sweaty from this ride even though it was about 30 minutes. I made sure to cool him thoroughly in front of the big fan after I hosed him off.