Wizard Rides 288 & 289: A Head With Wings

Friday, 9/30/11

In the photo above, my friend’s dearly-departed Morgan, Mary, is modeling the Stubben Golden Wings bit. The bit does not fit my friend’s new mare, so Wizard gave it a try.

We began our ride outdoors. The air was cool but damp from all the recent rain and humidity. All my tack got moldy from not riding for almost a week :^P Wizard was energetic but not evasive. He happily purred while we rode. Something about the cool air, the bit, and the time off seemed to agree with him, and he was FABULOUS. He was taking contact, and I was able to keep my hands right there with him instead of feeding the reins through with my fingers or creeping the reins up when he stretched into the bit. I think the Stubben is SO mild that Wizard is comfortable sitting on it a little more than his usual bits. All of our bits are extremely mild, but this one seemed to sit in his mouth like butter.

We worked on some lateral exercises, and I worked diligently on using my calf instead of poking him with my heel (awful habit that I fall into sometimes). We did some lengthening of our gaits, and I got the most BRILLIANT trot out of him. It was pretty close to a real extended trot- the tempo did not increase, but his stride lengthened and he really pushed with the hind end.

Annnnd then it rained.

So we moved indoors. We continued our lateral adventures, and did some shoulder in work, mostly at the walk. I got so brave that we practiced a few steps of Walter Zettl’s Shoulder-In Entwickeln Exercise. It was pretty sloppy, but the basics were there. He was SUCH a good boy. It made me think again about doing dressage shows with him :^)

Sunday, 10/2/11

Sunday’s ride was short, much to Wizard’s delight. We rode in the indoor arena with Kris and Sunny. We had a long, lazy walking warmup, followed by some leg yields at the walk. Then, we went into the trot, practicing circles at the ends. We worked on the leg yield at the trot, and were doing some transitions before Kris needed some moral support during her ride with Sunny. Wizard was off the hook for the rest of the ride, and was even referred to as “the good horse”. My goodness, how far we’ve come…