Flatwork and poles with River (U7)

Instructions

This next week I brought River back to the Arena. I’ve done a little more riding with her, and have ridden her some in the three main gaits. So I’m going to be doing some flatwork with her, because i’ve just been doing going around the arena and her getting used to a rider. First I set up some cones in the arena as markers for the different exercises. The first thing we did was a short warm up around the outside of the arena, I did more warmups that usual, as it is colder and the temperature is working against us. I’m just doing short 30 minute exercise today as i’ve got other things to do later. We mainly worked on transitions from walks to trots first, walking a few steps, picking up a trot, then slowing down to a walk. At first, she did not pick up the trot quickly, and had abrupt slow down for a walk. After going over the exercise several times she was able to do it well, having quick and clean transitions going in and out of trot. the second exercise that day we did transitions within a gait, a slow trot going into a fast trot. River naturally has a fast trot, so I just had to really slow her down in a trot, which i did by pulling lightly to signal her to slow down, while adding pressure from my legs to give her a trot. It was a little difficult at first, as she kept pulling on my hands during the slow trot, so I held the reigns looser and did not pull as much, while also not giving as much pressure with my legs. She did bunches better, so I cooled down for about 15 minutes before untacking, brushing, and putting her up. Second day of flatwork! I set up a cone in the middle of the arena, warmed up, and started my next set of exercises. I started near the walls of the arena and spiraled in at a walk, trying to stay relatively evenly paced in the spirals. After reaching the smallest achievable circle, I spiraled back out, and did it again at a walk, before doing it at a trot and canter as well. After River and I had good circles at those gaits, I worked on her cantering, as we mostly had walking and trotting the first day. I cantered her around the arena both ways, seeing if she would pick up the correct lead. Usually if I started trotting she would pick up the correct lead and she also tended towards her left lead rather than her right. So I worked with her to pick her leads up good and having balanced turns when cantering. Day three of flatwork: warmed up and set out cones like usual, but in a serpentine pattern. First I walked a wide serpentine, only having three loops, then came back with another set of four loops. I varied the number of loops so that River would not expect when to turn, which would have her concentrate more. We then moved to a trot and did more of the serpentines, focusing on balanced turns and not rushing. I then dismounted and set up the cones in a different way for circles. I started going left, and did a circle in each corner of the arena, then switched leads to go the other way. River did pretty awesome! she definitely feels more balanced than when i first started riding her. Day four of flatwork Today I got out some poles, four in a circle and three that were going to be raised. We warmed up, then walked over to the poles. I let her check them out, and then had her walk over them. It took a while, she wanted to side-shuffle to go around the poles. But with a little persistence and getting off to walk her over, she made it to the other side. So I got back on and started working on shifting her weight to be balanced, as that is her one major thing I can feel with her. I started with walk to canter transitions. She started a little trot in the middle, and after a while caught on. I did a walk, transition to canter, and had a trot in-between for the first few times, but had canter to walk transitions after several tries. I then walked her out a bit and let her have a break from working. After a good five minute break I got her back into working gear. I set up the raised poles and walked her over then first before proceeding with the exercise. I trotted her over the poles. She knocked the first one down, but not the others. We then went around the circle of logs, keeping a steady pace. We then went back after I set up the knocked log. she did great, and we did it on both sides. River did amazing this week with her poles!