Bend Through the Body, Say What?

Okay so my follow up to the teaser took a lot longer than expected. That's because I WAS RIDING :) We finally got some cooler weather and I took full advantage of it by getting 7 rides in five days. So I will share the pictures I took over Labor Day weekend while I share some about the rides.

First up to face the camera was Rosemary. The big news for her is that she has finished her sarcoid treatment. We have not seen any changes in quite awhile and consulted with the holistic vet. She said we could stop and if it is needed we can call and start up the treatment again. That is definitely a relief to the wallet. Rosemary, during her ride, likes to travel bent to the right.

We ended up doing a ton of left circles to show her that she can actually travel straight or gasp even bent left. It will be a long road to build the muscle memory to replace what she has developed over eight years. Luckily she seems to know the right answer when I put inside leg on, she bends through her body and reaches with her head.

Rosemary of course has to add her own spice and state her opinion. Her rides are never boring.

 

Like Mother, like Son. Roscoe was up next in the arena. While his photo session was a bit more involved to include some attempted free jumping, his rides were similar to his mothers. He too likes to travel to the right. Unlike his mother, he needed more than just my leg saying move your belly over. Say What??? So I brought out my little friends, baby spurs. They worked like magic.

Turn my foot, engage the spur and Roscoe lifted his left side while bending. Like his mother, once he did bend through the body he also softened his neck and reached forward. During each of the three rides, he was quicker to respond to my leg and needed less spur. I am happy with the direction he is moving and so is my very tired left leg.

 After two of the rides we went for a walk in the woods to cool out. I like to dismount and let them relax about half way through. Roscoe walked over to the barrels during both walks. I called him and the first day he found a way to go around.

 So I moved to the other side of the jump. Eventually after he found a way around a few times I figured he was too tired and went to walk away.

Roscoe went back to the barrels, so I called him again and this time he jumped over. Today he went right over there and when I called he walked around to the uphill side and jumped right over. But he was not done yet, he said he needed to do it again. Seriously this pony is so fun.

Another fun pony is Winston.  He and I have had two awesome rides. The first we did intervals, to include a few canter laps. Of course for an Arab, he felt that was a great warm up. Our next ride I wanted him to keep his gaits controlled. We did a pseudo dressage test, which turned out not too bad. 'Then we did halt to trot transitions. He kept his head and waited for me to cue him. So I upped the challenge by asking for a walk to canter. It was more walk, two trot strides and then canter, but the quality was there. I swear he rounded up and lifted right under me. That was something to feel. 

 
 Not to be forgotten, Comrade had two rides too recently. He is still not quite right, but gave some great effort. Anyone who did not know him probably would not know he had an issue.

My last photo shoot was with Dottie. I had Mom come and help thinking Dottie would be tough to get moving. Surprisingly, we released her and clicked and off she went trotting around the arena. Mom had her move on a bit and she did open up.

Then she even cantered.

Mom and I started to worry about getting her to stop. If we stood in front of her, she just went around continuing to cruise.

The big girl was on a roll. It took a carrot breaking to break her stride. Dottie can still surprise us. You have to watch those quiet ones.