Wizard Ride 290: Refusing to Stretch

Monday, 10/3/11

After work, I rode Wizard in the indoor arena with Kris and Sunny. Before the ride, I turned him loose in the arena to let him play a little. He did not go bananas, but did seem to enjoy moving out. During the ride, I paid attention to the breaking point when Wizard loses his suppleness and gets tense. It was after our warmup and when we started doing lateral work. He got tense again when I asked for the canter. His transitions were actually pretty good, and he picked up both correct leads the first time, but was not loose or stretching into the bit. The footing in the indoor arena is also much firmer than it is in the outdoor ring, and he travels differently in each ring.

For the rest of the ride, he was stretching nicely onto the bit. We worked on serpentines, trotted trot poles, and did some shoulder-in work at the walk and trot. We also did a little leg yield at the canter, which he executed nicely.

He got lots of breaks during the ride, and was about as fresh at the end as he was in the beginning :^)