Small Goals

Today was the first time riding since we have had all the bad snow and also this month marks a year of me and Gatsby, time sure does seem to fly by without you even realising it! I got there and he kept putting his head out as if to say 'AMBER HURRY UP AND COME SEEE ME!!!' it was really funny. I then spent half an hour grooming him and tacking him up as he was being a muddy pony! I think he roles on purpose when he knows I'm coming the little Monkey. 

Then when I got in I got on and Fiona asked me what I wanted to work on and I said Canter work with Gatsby, we decided that the best way was going to be for me to set myself a small goal, to do this, we decided that I would just canter half a circle. We warmed up walking on a long rein allowing him to stretch as he hadn't been rode that much this week, and he really wanted to stretch. We then changed rein making sure to work evenly on both reins as Gatsby's better side is his right rein. After doing this I spent some time doing rising trot making sure to stay balanced and that he wasn't rushing but was still active to start with he wasn't active. After he became more active we moved on to doing sitting trot work, this was to make both me and him become more balanced and make the transition from trot to canter smoother. When I felt confident that my transition and sitting trot was going well  we decided that it was time to do canter, as you all know about the fall, I was tensed up and getting nervous about doing it. The first and second time that I tried he was being naughty and trying to rush into it, So my riding teacher said that she would get on Gatsby and show me how to get a better smooth transition and guess what? He did exactly the same to her, this made me feel slightly better as it showed me that it wasn't my riding it was just the frame of mind that he had put himself in! Silly horse! Fiona eventually got him to canter and behave and showed me where I was going wrong, I then got back on him and even though the right rein is the rein that I struggle on we decided to try it going to the right first as that is Gatsby's better side, and he went really well, Even though it was only 5/6 strides of canter, it was controlled neat and tidy, which was better for me than a bad canter and doing lots of it. I then tried on the left rein and was surprised to see that we struggled more on the left than we did on the right, it was really odd. There was also a girl watching our lesson who rode at broomfield college where we used to ride. She was saying that she wasn't happy to be riding there especially not with Arthur and that was when Fiona told her about how both Me and Gatsby used to be there and how we had both moved, and you could see the difference in how we rode now. I then put his stable rug on and his new Zealand rug with the hood on to keep him warm as the temperatures were dropping rapidly. Then also introduced Gatsby to the girl who had come to watch and she seemed to really like the big fella. 

Amber you are now officially my head rest and are not allowed to move or you'll be in trouble!

Pony was dropping in to the outline

Amber, Amber, loook I can stretch this was on a loose rein and just after it was taken he through his head up and started shaking he is such a silly boy at times.

Fiona, Me and Gatsby.

Fiona getting on to show me and help me with Gatsby, she has shorter legs than me though so had to change the stirrup lengths, I was just out of this shot and he kept looking at me as if to say 'How dare you be on the floor, you are supposed to be riding me!'

'see amber I can canter i just didn't want to,  I love this pictures because it gives an idea of how excited he gets when cantering, and here he was trying to speed up but he didn't we half halted and kept going and didn't stop until I said it is time to stop.

Cantering with Gatsby.

Until Next Time, 

A very proud and happy Girl With A Dream