Benson, oct 19th

[Sabrina]

Congrats in the show, that's great for his first one. The trailering fiasco I'm sure was no fun, but atleast you're correcting that by making him practice it daily. Where was the show? Was it in New Brunswick by any chance?

[htrimm08]

thankss! noo just a local show, theres one at the end of every month during the summer here

[htrimm08]

we had a great day today, started off jogging, working out his sillies, keeping him nice and tight on the rail, circling every so often as well as halting him, then a direction change, working on the same. We then moved on to working on jog/lope transitions, while keeping his corners tight at the lope and working on smaller circles..his halt from the lope is very quick, sometimes he doesn't even make an extra step.. we ended the day by working on sidepassing, u/s along the rail.

afterward I brought him outside and hosed him off, then gave him supper on the trailer as usual, this time he loaded himself and I shut the door, when I opened it for him to get off when he was finished, he didn't want to haha, lets just hope next show day he still has the same views.

[htrimm08]

another productive ride, we started off with neck reining at the walk, lots of circling in both directions, he was very responsive, more leg pressure for tighter circles, etc.. every now and then I had to remind him with a direct rein.

we then moved back onto the rail, jogging, today he was nice and slow, had to circle him a few times when he wouldn't move off my leg, every now and then asking for a halt, or a change of direction then when he was going nice and quiet I started working on neck reining at the jog, again he was very responsive, when I felt he was going good we moved back out on the rail.

then we started working on his transition, speed and steering at the lope.. today he picked it up quite fast, and is taking to the corners more.. I absolutely adored his speed today, it was nice and slow, almost as if he were going to break, only a couple times did he actually break to the jog, but its going great! we switched up directions of course.. he did really well on his hard side also.

once I was satisfied with that, I also started working on his walk to lope transitions, their pretty terrible at this point I must say, but we have to start somewhere of course! If hes the benson I know he should pick it up within the next few rides if I make it a point to perfect.

we ended the ride by going back to neck reining while cooling out.. then I hosed him off again and he loaded himself on the trailer for his foods

[htrimm08]

yesterday I rode bareback, sooo we did all jog work, neck reining and worked on his turn on the haunches/forehand and sidepassing a little.. a few times I asked him to lope but because I was obviously focusing on trying to stay on lol, hed break easy.. soo didnt work out quite that well.. I want to be able to gain balance soo i guess ill just ride without stirrups instead of being completely bareback for a while...

todayyy we did a lot of lope work, I didnt ride for long because it was a schorcherrr, +30 with high uv index.. we just worked on keeping him slow and control, along the rail, in corners and on circles, it was greatt.. we also did a bit of neck reining and sidepassing again.. he was soo tired by the endd..

I also went to horseplay to try out a 17hh jumper, whom I really like.. very quiet but fun.. Danica even had me pop him over some small jumps hahaha, I wish I could have seen that, I didn't almost fall off anyway! I think I want to start taking some jumping lessons.. hmm

[htrimm08]

today, today was a wonderful day..

he was pretty good today I must say, his lope was veryy nice and his transitions not bad either.. first we worked on neck reining and his turn on the forehand, which is coming along well i must admit.. then we went back out on the rail and started jogging.. doing circles every now and then. then of course we moved on to working on jog-lope transitions, then went back to neck reining and turns.. then back out on the rail for more transitions in the other direction..

after that three more horses came into the ring, benson always gets a little goofy when riding with other horses, i guess because we've always ridden by ourselves. soo it took a little while to get the sillys out of him.. he wasn't so bad today, every time we passed a horse he used to try to break gaits hard and veer toward the other horse.. now hes just tries to slow down a little.

we went back to neck reining, backing up and turns again.. as well as side passing.. in which hes coming along in.. I also found out that my horse isnt too bad at leg yielding either, pretty impressive, considering I've never tried to teach him that yet!

[htrimm08]

again today worked on all the same things as beforee, most of his transitions today were mint, and he was taking to the corners well, i was pretty happy.. we also did some speed changes at the lope, though he didn't really get too fast.. I think I'm going to start doing some collection excersizes with him, I don't think hes really been engaging his hindend like he should.. any excersize suggestions??

[htrimm08]

had a good lesson todayy.. the ring was gross from the rain yesterday so we just kept it to jog.. so today we worked on my position, as it relates to how he carries himself and movement. She also had me work on my hand position and placement of my reins when I ask him to turn and such. It proved that he went much better when asked properly!..

for him we worked on figure eights as well as on the rail and diagonal, and getting him moving and bending through the ribcage and preventing him from sticking out his shoulder, getting his turns nicer. As well as tuning up my ques for him to stop, go and back up.. I hadn't realized. but I've been exaggerating everything, like you would when starting a horse (as I started him) but he really doesn't need it anymore, I need to have him carrying himself instead of relying on me, and really once he carries himself he goes much nicer, and its less work.

[htrimm08]

yesterday we worked on our homework, which went very well.. I focused alot on myself and in result he went better.. today it was windy and a bit rainy out so I took that time to do some matinencing on Benson, I touched up his feet with the rasp, fisked them and MTG'd his mane/tail,

[htrimm08]

I had another ride in before our lesson today, and we worked on getting him moving through the ribcage again, along with some lope work..

Today was pretty successful, first she had me review the work from our last lesson, and alas he went good so we moved on to leg yeilding. With proper instruction hes not half bad at it, she had us go along the rail and then turn in at the centerline and then leg yeild to the corner (in both directions) It took me a couple times to get used to the correct pressures to use with my reins, and once I got him slowed a bit, he would cross over properly in the front and back.

at the jog was a different story, I got quite fusterated because all he wanted to do was circle when id put pressure on my inside rein to block him, which made me want to haul him over to go straight with the outside rein, but that just made him turn his head to the outside, which we definatly do not want..

it proved to be human error, because then Megan hopped on and she had him going very nice, it was nice to actually be able to see him crossing over.. it made me jealous haha, but of course she is here to help me!

She also had me working on our transitions some more.. today his lope transitions were less than nice unfortunately, she commented on how I pop out of the saddle a bit, but I knew I was sitting properly, and when she rode him afterward, we discovered that it wasn't me at all, but him, apparently he doesn't use his back properly, causing it hard to sit to.. so our next lesson we will be working on getting him moving correctly.

[htrimm08]

another successful ride tonight! we worked on our leg yeilding, he was quite better than yesterday, and yielding to the left seems to come easier for him, which is great! Im starting to get the hang of applying correct pressures on both my reins

I really worked on getting him propelling himself forward with his hindend and keeping him light in the front, I also worked on getting him to keep his head down at the lope and engage his back, and it was very successful, once I asked him to give and he put it down, I guess he realized that it felt better for him so he pretty much kept it there himself for the majority.

that is all for today, gnight folks!

[htrimm08]

yesterdays ride was much the same as before with more progress.. again to the left he goes really well, dosnt try to lead with his shoulder as much, instead with his ribcage as he should.. crossing over in front and hind.

Today I rode Ruben, he was a bit to handle today, he really likes to gogogo, so i spent alot of time trying to correct him, whenever he would trot without my signal I'd stop and back him up, needless to say, hes gotten better at backing up lol. Today he would also try to break gaits so i worked him on that. We did some low jumps today at the end too, but i was soo tired and hot I could barely concentrate on my two point.

I'm in halifax for the weekend now so both boys are getting a nice break, and me too! riding everyday sometimes twice a day takes some getting used to!

[htrimm08]

today went really well, we started our ride with working on leg yielding, again to the right hes pretty slow and stops every couple steps because I'm using my reins so much to keep his shoulder tucked in, but he seems to be getting the hang of it, to the left he seems to be doing well! we will see what Megan has to say about it tomorrow.

we basically switched up between working on keeping his back engaged at the lope and leg yeilding the whole time, haha oh what a difference his lope is when hes using his back properly! I can't believe I haven't addressed it before, I mean hes always had a pretty nice lope but this is insane, my butt doesn't come out of the saddle for a nanosecond, very floaty.

amongst all that he was also spot on for his transitions tonight, and had two really nice stops from the lope, he had his hind end engaged, I was very happy with him!

[htrimm08]

another productive lesson.. we did some more transition work, today she had me asking for downwards transitions from walk-halt and jog-walk, with only using my seat.. he did fairly well considering that hes so used to having me exaggerate everything, before I would take my legs off of him, but as Megan explained that just lets him fall into it and not stay compacted like he should. Whenever he wouldn't break down right away I would back him up, basically thats what we do for everything, like when he dosn't transition up instantly.

we did a bit of loping transitions, we discussed how its quite funny that where he doesn't normally engage his back at the lope, it causes me to pop out of the saddle a bit, but from the ground you can't tell that he does it because he still looks good, most horses who do that look quite unbalanced.. HOWEVER it makes me look like a bad rider lol.

from there we went back into leg yielding, as I was wondering, he is crossing over properly when I think he is so we are defiantly on the right track, we just need to work more on going to the right.

Today we also started on collection at the walk, and a bit of trot.. because I've worked with giving to pressure and vertical bending with him since I've had him, he did really well.. Megan had us "powering" around at a fast walk to really push him into the bit and get his back elevated, it will take a little while for him to be able to hold himself the entire time but we are off to a great start.

[htrimm08]

soo we had a nice ride today, did a little leg yeilding, alot of collection at walk and trot, and some flexation at the lope, even got him doing a nice little turn on the haunch..

we have a show tomorrow at cnhp, hopefully all goes well and we place better this time! he got a nice bath today and all trimmed up for it.