Benson, oct 19th

[htrimm08]

My boy has fit right in and he seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit. I just brushed him and went in the outdoor with him for a while, once he got wif of the mares they had a little nicker party, he was quite excited watching them in their field so I let him be for a bit and then lunged him a little as well.

[htrimm08]

for the past two days I've been lunging him, he was a bit rusty at the lope, as before he left lab he was only just getting the hang of it, however with lots of encouragement to keep him going hes been going good. Yesterday he was fabulous, picked up pace and slowed at walk/trot, stopped instantly and I didn't really have to get after him at all while loping, he did the same in both directions. after that I got him to jump over a cavaletti for fun, lol hes not very graceful.

Once he gets his feeties done I start ridding, but now it just gives me time to focus on groundwork.. next weekend I think I may take him in a Sue Fraser lesson, lol english or not, I can always use some help with my ridding in general.

[htrimm08]

he did fab with lunging again today, this time I had him going for longer and tacked up.. afterwards I hopped on and just walked and trotted around for about 10 minutes, I really missed ridding my horse!

[htrimm08]

We had an absolute FABULOUS ride today, i was very happy that he did so well, considering he hasn't been worked for over a month. we did lots of transitions between w/t/l and giving and bending at the jaw. I started off as usual with walking, then trotting and on to loping.. Once I got my seat at the lope I could get him going nice and smooth, it took a couple tries to get him on the right lead but once he got it he kept it.

I had him trotting and loping large circles in both directions, then trotted small circles. I also got him halting from the trot, and then backing up, which hes still a bit rusty on, I'm going to have to start working on faster back ups. hes been turning really good, the start of a great spin! but obviously hes still young so I'm going to be holding off on spinning for a while yet.

after that I walked him out and gave him lots of praise, love and fed him. Hes such a fun ride, eager and willing, i love my boy

[htrimm08]

well i had a few rides since last post, all went really well.
yesterday I focused more on neck reining as well as trot/lope transitions, we also did halting at the trot and backups. There was another horse in the arena with us today so he was a bit distracted for a bit, after I got him focused on me and what I was asking he did fine. His back ups are improving and His transitions seem to be improving, theres less time in which he "runs". Id say after two strides he picks up the lope now, I felt much more secure in my seat as well, which helped us out a lot, I also tried to focus a bit on my position, because I find at the lope that I tense up and my elbows come out.

Along with that I started playing with the bit with him at the lope, soon I'll start working on getting him to bend. Where before he would break to the trot, thinking I'm asking him to slow, he continued on with some help from my legs lol.

[htrimm08]

yesterday I brought my aunt and cousin visiting from halifax up to see Benson, I just brushed him and gave my cousin a short pony ride. Today I finished trimming his feet, boy was it ever warm, I was sweating bullets by the end of it, he wasn't too comfortable either but I'll bet he feels much better with pretty tootsies. After that I did some leading and ground work with him again, got him turning off the fore and hind, and chased him around a bit lol.

[htrimm08]

erm, the last time I rode I introduced benson to Mr. shank, I'm not sure what to call it, but its sort of a french link with a copper roller in the middle.. anyway he was acting kind of silly with it, like the first few times I had ridden him with a bit.. so cute lol.

Today I rode him with the shank again, after having all long weekend off he was being quite lazy so I had to get after him a bit to go, with the shank he always tries to cut his trotting circles smaller, probably due to my own error.. either way I kept at him until he was going in a nice circular circle. I think for now I'm going to switch his bit back to the snaffle.. and once we get some lessons in we'll see.. theres no need for it now anyway.

[htrimm08]

oops, here I go failing to write again..

well today I rode in the indoor, and will probably ride there from now on, its getting so cold! I've switched back to his snaffle.. im quite happy with it for now. He had so much energy so we worked on trotting, getting him into a nice jog, working out his sillies, again bending at the trot and did circles at opposite corners..

he was very easy to keep in a nice circle tonight. we also worked on loping wide circles, he was overly rushy, just because he was gearing to go, its funny usually hes just like, meh. after I was satisfied with him we worked on neck reining/leg response, he did very well.. I had him going around and circles in every direction at the walk.

[htrimm08]

just back from the barn,
tonight I lunged him, all went well. I had him doing a lot of walk,halt,jog,halt transitions, and worked on going from a slow pleasure jog to a longer stride trot, he had it going great on the right, but it took some time for him to get the slowww jog to the left, he would keep breaking to a walk. His jog-lope transition is becoming faster and less messy, im so happy for that.. hes really starting to round up.

After all that and I was satisfied I hopped on him (bareback/halter) and worked some more on leg/seat response.. he was fab, did lots of circling stopping AND backing up with just my seat.. we also moved on to the jog and his response was excellent. Hes been a very good boy

now. off to the gym! lol

[htrimm08]

the last two days were good,
yesterday I lunged him for a bit, same as usual, he was very energetic and picked up the lope so well, I had him doing a lot of loping in both directions.. andd thats about it lol..

today I rode and did some circle work, getting him nice and supple and bending, hes still not picking up his right lead like he should, next time I ride were going to be focusing on just that.

[htrimm08]

Yesterday Krystina came out and rode my boy for the majority of it, he was really good and didn't pick up the wrong lead to the right, making me look like a lier of course. lol.. I just hopped on him at the end and played around..

Today I rode him longer than I usually do, we did lots of transitions from Lope to jog on a wide circle, getting him out of that rushy phase, but I must say he did rather well. Then I just walked/jogged him around the arena, switching directions, stopping and backing up, let him chill, and then did some more lope/jog transitions and then walked him out when i was satisfied with him.

[htrimm08]

Yesterday we had a lesson from Joelle, an old student of Mona Lewis, she hadn't been ridding or coaching for over a few years and wanted to get back into it, free of charge, She had contacted me after I had posted that I was looking for a western coach in the area so I figured I would give her a try.

After I had told her what I had been doing with Benson recently and where he is we decided to start off with getting him bending properly and completely as well as . Hes always been supple but its time to take him to the next level. He already bends at the halt which makes this process much easier, basically She had me bend him and push him in a forward/circle motion, and when would give I would give and let him walk out of it and then repeat, in both directions.. this didn't take much work as he dosn't ever fight much, only at the beginning he was slightly frustrated because it was more work than I ever had him do yet.. after we felt that he needed a break from that I had him jogging on a wide circle, alternating speeds.

After that we did some excersizes to start getting him sidepassing, he was pretty responsive to coming off the leg on both sides and seemed to understand the rein concept pretty well... both is what we'll be working on until Joelle comes out again in two weeks.. Hopefully by that time, he'll be able to hold his head in place for the bend longer.. but I'll be posting our progress on that as we go!

Overall I really got a good impression of her, she seems to be very patient and explains things well. Also she really likes my boy, and was very impressed that a 3 y/o would have that much patience and be so quiet, Which makes me very happy I love him so much, the best decision I've ever made.

[htrimm08]

Today Codi and I went to ze barn and rode, she rode this cute little reiner with an unfortunate hind end, but boy could she spin, and stop, you know, all that jazz.

I worked on bending a bit more with him, he did really well with holding his head in place in both directions, I also had him transitioning lope/jog on a large circle and he did well with that, did some more of the excersizes to get him off my leg. S'about it.

[htrimm08]

I've been getting pretty slack with this.. all my rides are pretty much the same, different pattersns.. but I've been working on my homework that Joelle gave me and its all been going really well..

I had another lesson on friday, we worked on different bending excercises, and getting him into them more.. he had been inside all day so he was acting rather silly, but did fairy well considering. This new exercise we used the wall to turn him into and got him to do sort of a rollback and then we moved on to getting him to trot out of it. It took a while for me to get the hang of asking him to do it the right way.. We did alot of direction changes, because trotting on the circle he would either stick off his shoulder or come inside the circle, so then joelle got me to turn him in the opposite direction of where hes trying to go, to get him thinking more about what I want him to do

The next day I rode again and worked on this new exercise, and all of the usual stuff.. he did really well, and was very willing.. no funny business this time.

[justine]

Nov 8, 2010 22:27:53 GMT -3 @htrimm08 said:

Overall I really got a good impression of her, she seems to be very patient and explains things well. Also she really likes my boy, and was very impressed that a 3 y/o would have that much patience and be so quiet, Which makes me very happy I love him so much, the best decision I've ever made.

I know what you mean Heather. I couldn't of asked for a better first horse than my boy either, and for him to be coming 4 the spring, I wouldn't have thought I would have one so young for the first. But I wouldn't change a thing about it, I love my boy.