GREAT DAY!!

Mo and I had an AMAZING session this afternoon!! I was kind of thinking that because it was really warm out she might be sluggish and not want to play but as soon as were out of the intern cube she was all squeals and offering canter. It was adorable.

I am trying to force myself to play on my 45' more now. Having done abismally in Online testing two or three times... I figured its time to suck it up and git'ur done. We can play on a 22' and do amazing things, or even on 30' of a 45. Its just using the whole thing .. getting her out there, motivating her to keep moving and being effective from that much of a distance without nagging - and THEN dealing with my achy ankle while I walk and try and keep up with her on something like a trotting weave pattern. Ouchy for me. Espcially in the sand.

But anyways! We set up and played with a weave pattern, and Mo was a super pro - she really understood her responsibility to stay on it, and I managed to be effective from a further distance away, though not at the end end of my rope yet. It was definate progress though! I was really proud of her.

Doing auditions here, checking them out and sending out results has been interesting, because I can see the comments diferent instructors are making on different things and one thing that has hit me today and I have been soaking on it for a few days was "make your phase 1 your phase 4" so I was really trying to play with that in mind today - lightness without sacrificing effectiveness or justice and I really think it was working! Mo was all for it and trying her heart out!

When I felt good about the weave [which ended on some excelletn happy enthusiastic trot draw] I changed tactics to the circling game, playing with maintain gait, then transitions [which blew Mo's mind, becuse she was all in the maintain gait zone] and then finally some change of direction. Our change of direction has been semi cracked and broken for the last few weeks so I wanted to see if I could start to patch it up today. Our changes from left to right are decent, I got even a few flying changes, but our right to left ones are still dicey and more often than not result in just a stop or an almost change and then canter off in the same direction.

At the start I was just playing with changing direction but when that wasnt really helping I switched to some backwads S pattern and that seemed to make the difference once she got it. After a really good flying change to the left I called it quits and went to saddle up [ after stuffing copious amounts of cookies into her waiting face, of course!]

After saddling up and bridling [which is getting really great with Mo seeking the bit!] I mounted and headed back to the arena. I started with just some trotting follow the rail and playing with some Game of Contact, which Mo is getting super pro at! I feel like we are starting to play in Stage 3, which feels AMAZING! Mo can have a crazy huge trot that feels more like a warmblood than her little clyde hackney self! It was a cool ride!

When our trot was feeling really good, I picked up the reins some more and went into the most lovely canter! The best thing was how LIGHT Mo was on the bridle! When Pat talks about an ounce on the bit...this is what he must mean! It was solid happy contact, but it was light! I just asked her to carry herself and she said 'yes mam, I will' and carried her own body the way I asked without using me as support to hold her up. What a cool feeling.

We played with canter circles in both directions through a question box pattern and then I got brave... and asked for a flying lead change.... and got HALF! SWEET! The front changed but the back didnt, so we dropped to trot and picked it back up again. She tried so hard! She was on the right track! It was a great feeling! We went through about four of those. We would circle a few times, then think about a flying change and get the front end to change but the back would be crossfiring, so drop to trot and pick it properly again.

AND THEN!

Mo went LIGHTBULB and GOT IT! She gave me two perfect flying changes - one in each direction, back to back and thats when I stopped and jumped off! What a superstar!!! I fed her all the cookies in my pockets, unbridled her and brought her back to the cube tackroom to untack, get a shower and go graze on the fast growing Florida grass for a while!

Thats my excitement for the day :-D My Mo is a SUPER ROCK STAR! Gotta love her!

:-)
S