The way to heaven is on horseback

I rode Gatsby yesterday (Saturday) and we had a really really good lesson! It would appear that last weeks riding wasn't just a fluke and that I can actually ride in an outline for an hour twice in a row! Can I make it three times though? It has taken me 3 years (roughly) riding at this stables that I am at now to get the feel of the outline and now that I have got the feeling it just makes so much more sense!  We started up warming up in the walk, making sure to move long and low, making sure that I rode off the track and making sure that I was riding straight. I had to make sure that Gatsby's neck was not overly bent to the inside because he was trying to pull on my right rein to block my contact with it. I have to give him credit that once I got him listening he was very good and very responsive. We moved up in to the walk work quite early as Gatsby felt really nice supple and loose through his back, he was responsive, forward and listening to what I wanted! Straight a...

So now it is time to look at other things that I haven't done but would love to do from the list :), as you saw in part one there is quite a bit that I have done but there's so much more to do and loads more horsey memories to be made. Pink things to do while riding.   3. See how small of a circle you can trot without walking.  4. Ride a dressage test, but replace all trot sections with canter, all canter sections with walk, and all walk sections with canter. This is something I think would be interesting to do, Gatsby and I do a lot of canter work, and I would love to be better at dressages tests so maybe switching it up a little bit would mean I'd ride a test easier.  5. Attend a fundraiser or poker ride in your area. I wanted to do this with Gatsby last year, it was an endurance ride but I was unable to, hoping to when I have my own horse though! 7. Give a child who might otherwise not have access to horses a pony ride. More likely to do this when...

Well I was reading a really interesting post that can be found  here on Equestrian Journey's Blog  and thought that I might have to copy the idea of the list, as with only being at my stables two days a week while I'm at Uni there isn't an awful lot horse related going on. There is 214 things on this list and first i'm going to put the things that I have already done!  2. Canter straight between two poles set parallel on the ground, make them as narrow as you can. This is something that I have done with Gatsby and other horses, I did this recently with Gatsby to work on my straightness when jumping and making sure we would get the right stride in canter before putting the jumps up.  8. Ride in the rain, intentionally. Living in the UK it rains a lot so if I stopped riding just cause it rained I probably would not do that much riding! 10. Try riding in a new saddle. On Gatsby alone I have rode in three different saddles on him, when Riding ...

Hiya Everyone,  Well it's been a while since I post but things have been really hectic, between Uni and Riding there is not much time for anything else. So first of all I thought I would tell you all about riding Gatsby and a special surprise ;).  Well i started off my lesson riding my all time favourite Gatsby, we decided that we were going to work on riding without stirrups as this is something that I was doing a lot of but haven't done in a while and seen as I'm feeling a lot more confident I decided that it was time to do it again and I have video's for you all :). We warmed up in walk and trot, doing small amounts of leg yield and working on keeping both Gatsby and I straight. The outline came a lot easier this time, and we managed to get it in walk and trot and best of all we were maintaining it through transitions and for the majority of the hour. (See the video's below),  Then after riding Gatsby I got a ride on the lovely hors...