August 18, 2011 - New bridle

New bridle, old reins

I went to Greenhawk's four day sale this morning.  Their Connemara line of strap goods was on sale for half price today only.  It was a great deal and I wondered how they could afford to sell at that price, even for one day.  When I went looking for the bridles all became clear - sale prices on in stock merchandise only, with almost nothing in stock.  There were two bridles on my possibles list and only 3-4 of each. Fortunately I found a cob sized one among them. 

When I went out to the barn in the evening I couldn't resist bringing Rory in to try on his new bridle.  The bridle fits quite nicely and the leather is decent quality.  I'm not a fan of the white stitching, but for $30 I'm not complaining.  His training bridle is definitely not in good enough condition to use at a show, and I don't want to make his custom bridle until next year because I'm sure his head will grow a bit more.

August 16, 2011 - Out on the grass

I rode later again today, around sunset.  We went out into the grass field for the whole session, starting with longeing as a kind of "away from home" practice in preparation for going to a show.  I didn't ask him to canter on the longe, deciding that might be a bit much to expect.  Rory was very good at the walk and trot despite the temptation of the green grass under his feet.  He had a bit of trouble getting the left canter lead again, and turning was difficult once he'd gotten the lead.  I did a lot of point to point riding to practice straight lines.

August 14, 2011 - Twilight ride

I rode Rory in the evening twilight tonight.  Totyo was alone in their paddock, but didn't fuss too much about being alone since he could see Rory in the sand ring.  Rory was very good.  He did a beautiful three loop serpentine, crossed the diagonal nice and straight so we could do the serpentine again off the other rein.  As he came around the corner Rory drifted out towards the sand pile, then suddenly spooked and leaped away towards the middle of the ring.  I lost one stirrup and would have come off if he hadn't stopped.  We turned and went back around the corner in the same direction and I realized he was spooking at the mark from the tractor bucket beside the sand pile where the barn owner had taken some sand away.  I tried to get him to walk on the bucket mark but he wasn't having any of it.  I dismounted and lead him across, but he still wasn't willing to touch it.  He climbed halfway up the sand pile, slid down onto the mark and after a couple of passes it was kicked up enough with hoof and foot prints that he was okay walking over it.  I remounted and we walked over it again before returning to the work.

We trotted the serpentine and did a little canter.  The right lead was okay, but again I really had to work to get him to canter on the left lead.  He kept picking up the right lead.  When we did finally get the left lead Rory fell to the inside and didn't keep it for very long.

I dared to take him out round the grass field in front of the arena at the end of our ride.  He was very good apart from the little refusal to go past the big sunflowers on the corner of the lawn.  We went past, giving them a wide berth just in case they had plans to bop Rory.  The four horses in the front field came over to the fence to see who was going by and Rory looked at them, but kept walking when I asked him to go on.  We came back between the arena and the barn, setting off the spotlight on the corner of the arena.  Rory started when it came on, but didn't actually jump.  I'd forgotten the light was there - the days are getting shorter again.  I was very pleased with Rory tonight!

August 11, 2011 - Sit!!

Rory on the way to sitting down

 We had a full peanut gallery today.  I set up four trot poles today, one of which was a cavaletti.  Rory started off well, but Totyo was interested in
all the action in the sand ring and came down to hang over the fence.  As Rory trotted by Totyo bounced and invited him to play.  Rory speeded up, but settled when I told him to take it easy.  Each time Rory went by he got more distracted until he got too interested in playing with Totyo and took off towards the fence.  I checked him with the longeline and as he put the brakes on, his hind feet slipped forward and for a moment he ended up sitting on his bum like a dog. 

 Rory got up quickly and faced me.  Totyo was still bouncing around, but Rory had decided he was going to pay close attention to me.  I got him to walk and he looked okay so I asked for a trot.  He looked fine at the trot as well.  I longed for a few more minutes and sent him over the poles a couple of times before mounting up.

Rory was good under saddle.  We walked and trotted over the poles and around the ring.  His right lead canter was good with an easy transition, but he really didn't want to take the left lead.  Several times he gave me the right lead instead.  I finally managed to convince him to take the left lead, but he really wasn't happy and broke to trot after only a few strides.  I didn't push for more because I felt that he'd probably done something when he sat down that made the left lead uncomfortable.  Hopefully he'll be back to normal after a day or two to recover.

August 8, 2011 - Blackjack!

Just skimming past the X end of the cavaletti

 Rory was good on the longeline as usual today.  I set up three trot poles, using a cavaletti on the lowest height as the middle pole.  I also put out a canter rail.

We walked over the trot poles so Rory could have a look at them and realize that the middle one was a little higher than the end ones.    I haven't quite got the hang of getting a good halt from Rory yet.  He tends to swing his hindquarters to one side or the other as he stops.  I tried to correct the swing today and it just made the halt into a bigger mess.

 The first time I aimed Rory at the trot poles he trotted up to them nicely, straight and forward and then swerved left at the last moment.  I wasn't able to keep him straight and I hoped he wouldn't bang his legs on the X end of the cavaletti.  He did have boots on, but I really didn't want him to run into anything.  Rory came back to a walk after his narrow miss and I explained to him that I'd really rather he didn't swerve away from the poles.  We returned to trot and went over the single pole before trying the trot poles again.  This time he managed to go over them, if not quite in a straight line.  Even when he was a little crooked Rory was willing to stretch his stride a little so he could maintain the rhythm of his trot.

Rory cantered on the left lead first today.  We went round the ring and over the pole before changing the rein.  It took a couple of tries to get the right lead, but after he got it we managed to canter all the way around the ring.  About halfway round he did almost break to trot, but responded to my leg when I asked him to keep going.  Progress!

At the end of the ride I walked him over the trot poles, and then around and between them in a rough figure eight.  The circles were a bit uneven in size and shape, but he was listening to me.  Totyo had come down to the fence a couple of times and Rory had ignored him for the most part.  He watched Totyo when we were close, but never tuned me out.

Today was the twenty first day that I've been on Rory's back.  I'm quite happy with his progress given that he's been ridden for less than four hours altogether.