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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

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

The Elusive Canter has Returned!

I kept forgetting to post this last week, but apparently the canter is BACK! Dreamy had found a nice canter earlier in July and then we lost it again. Well, it came back on Thursday and Friday! YAY! There was no rushing, galloping, or general crankiness. I asked and she did it.

I have a feeling that creating a balanced 3-beat "dressage worthy" canter will take a few more of these setbacks. I have been so used to progressing this year that I wrongly assumed the canter would follow a similarly linear training pattern. NOPE. It has literally been 5 steps forward, 3 steps back. Now we seem to have taken a few more steps forward.

At first it was simply CANTER. I did not care what it looked like, I just wanted her to learn the cue to canter and simply that it was OK to canter. I worked on eliminating her tendency to start pacing 30 mph when I asked to canter....and simply go from the trot to the canter. Then we worked on tempo and rhythm. Suddenly in July she began to relax and come onto the bit at the canter. That was HUGE progress. (See my post from July). And the canter had a bit more lift, as opposed to being so flat and strung out. It is hard for a STB who is bred to go long, low, and fast to suddenly collect and have "lift" in the canter. I realize I am working against her breeding.

Then of course we had the setback.....all of a sudden she reverted back to pacing 30 mph when asked to canter and GALLOPING instead of cantering. So I just went back to the exercises I had figured we had mastered (note to self: never assume that again) and suddenly last week the canter magically came back! LOL!

Baby steps.....

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