Gait work

It likes to rain lately, or else it likes to hit over 90 degrees in April, of all months. So, riding has been limited but I have done a couple of rides working on Peanut's gaits.

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My first ride was on the 23rd. The barn where I board has a 1/4 mile long, paved driveway that's on a hill. It's good for working on Peanut's gaits, especially when Fair Hill is a little soggy.

That night, we gaited up the driveway 3 times. Ideally, we would stay in the middle at a rapid running walk. In my last lesson, we paced, we racked, we cantered, we fishtailed into the grass, we were all over. That night, we stayed in the middle just fine, and had moments of brilliant running walks. Most of the time was spent in a rack with the occassional pace, and it was slower than ideal, but at least we were able to stay straight.

Each time we reached the top of the driveway, I gave Peanut a cookie. It made him happy.

Once it did its remolding magic and I relaxed, I didn't think of the saddle except to ask if it was centered when I passed Rick. It was also the first ride in a long time where Peanut and I didn't fight over something. It was a really lovely ride!

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Today, we did the driveway again. Walked up once, gaited up three times. Most (well, maybe about half if I think about it) was done at the running walk! We even got some fast running walks in. At some points I had to raise one rein pretty high to get him to get out of the rack, but I was happy. I need to remember to half halt! I forgot that part and that probably could have corrected it as well. He still got a cookie at the top, and on the last two runs he would speed up at the top to get there and get his cookie. That resulted in fabulous, fast running walks that were then rewarded. :D

Since the driveway undulates a little as it goes uphill, he would go up a steep part and fall into a walk as he reached the top and ignore my legs. I'm really a clutz with whips, so I gave a couple flips to the ends of his reins so that they would tap his withers and we were off. After that, it was like I had a whip and suddenly I got a lot more respect.

We had a couple of fishtailing issues on the collected walks downhill, and I finally scrutinized my reins. I had more pulled through the left than the right, and I knew from before that I tend to do that but it didn't seem to make a difference. I evened them out, and Peanut straightened out. Whoops. It just seemed that to get equal pressure they would have to be uneven, but instead could it be that uneven reins are resulting in him moving oddly, resulting in him tilting his ribcage, resulting in me feeling off center? I'll have to be very conscious of the reins and see if it makes a difference.

Again, we didn't fight. I kept the ride pretty short, but it was a nice ride.

One thing that I played with as we walked was the fact that I can stop him now with just a contraction of my abdominals. Seriously. We didn't have this kind of connection in the other saddles.

Next time, I think that I'm going to try dropping my stirrups another hole and seeing what happens. I already ride a hole lower than I did in my lesson, but they still feel short.

Today the saddle felt great from the moment I mounted. There was no adjustment period. Today he also sweated under the saddle for the first time, and, since he only sweated in a couple of patches, I found that I had put too much of the padding in the back of the suberpanel. I'll have to even it out before I ride again. However, it also revealed that there was no spine contact. WHOO!