Wizard Ride 282: Tame the Sun

Thursday, 9/15/11

The only way I seem to be able to ride in daylight is to ride before work or on my days off. I’m loving the change of seasons, but this fast sunset is messing up my game! Before doing my Camelot Auction photos, Mom and I went to the barn and I rode Wizard outdoors. The weather was variably warm/humid and windy/cool.

Wizard and I duplicated parts of Wednesday’s ride, warming up on a very loose rein at the trot. He stretched even more than he did the day before, and I can see those lovely complexus muscles in the photo above. Not bad for a cribber with a thick neck! The stretching works on his neck telescoping mechanism.

Since he was so loose and limber, I asked for a canter right away instead of doing a lot of trot work. It worked pretty well, and we did circles in each corner to keep him balanced and focused. He picked up each lead readily.

When he gets anxious or tries to rush or gets unbalanced, Wizard tucks his nose and goes behind the bit, like this:

I did some more work on loosening him, lifting my hands, and getting him above the bit. We trotted through the fanned trot poles, and then we took the hay bale jump a few times. First, we trotted in, and then cantered it a few times. When he was nice and balanced, I encouraged him to reach by giving a long crest release and lots of loose rein.

But when he rushed or got unbalanced, he got a short release with more contact:

We ended our session on a good note, trotting in over the jump, since he was beginning to anticipate it at the canter. He settled, and we called it a day.