After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time! most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the
My riding lessons as of late have been focused on teaching Ellie the basics of leg yield, shoulder in, haunches in (travers), and lengthenings. On my own at home, I have worked quite a bit with her on shoulder fore, leg yielding in both the walk and trot, and we have practiced variations within the trot gait, so she is familiar with the idea of trotting more forward when asked. However, on my own I had not asked specifically for shoulder in, haunches in, or lengthenings. I did that weird app thing on FB where you find out your most used words. I didn't post it but took a screenshot instead. Yeah, looks about right for my life! It feels as though we spent sooooooo long just getting a solid walk, trot, and canter but now that those basics seems firmly installed, we are moving on up to big girl dressage things. Ellie seems to enjoy the new challenges and has a strong work ethic and desire to try. She definitely forgives my mistakes (mostly because she doesn't realize