Willy and Moose help navigate the truck.

So Saturday it was time for a lesson. We headed down to Patrick's place. Traffic on Saturdays is awful, but we troop onwards. We get there with 30 minutes to spare and I get her tack and ready to go.

She looks like she's pretty much dead. I think usually around 2pm, she's taking a nap so she's a wee bit tired.

We rode in the indoor since she was a bit spooky last time we'll deal with it again. Of course this time, didn't look at anything. Patrick asks me what I'm going to show in next weekend and I tell him. He asked me if there is anything I really want to work out. I told him one of the judges told me she needs more elasticity.

So we start.

But I stop him, because he's explaining something I really had no clue about. So we stopped and he explain to me what elasticity meant. His wife was riding so I got to see an example of a horse that was elastic.

It seemed pretty easy to understand, but to get her to do it. Not so much. We started working on trying to get her softer and rounder on the bit. Of course being a mare it's a long discussion.


Patrick really made me understand that sometimes you need to ride the individual. What works for one horse may not work for another. We also had to make her feel uncomfortable in the bit, and when she gave to the bit and became rounder, she would be more comfortable. All it was was about bit positioning.

She fights and fights and fights, but when she get round, she wants to go slow. So it's just a slow process of when teaching her it's okay to move out when she gets round.

Patience. *x*

She's a good girl. One thing I can totally notice improving is her canter. I think her canter is her highlight and it's easier for her. So now she really wants to break into the canter when things get tough.

In today's ride, she didn't want to halt. So we'll have to work on that.

And yes I happen to be riding on the wrong diagonal in both pics. Slaps myself. I usually don't have that issue, but I think I was trying to work so hard at what Patrick was saying I totally forgot my diagonals. :P No excuse, but eh.