Chance Goes to School

Another Beautiful Day

I have to admit, Spring is sharing many beautiful days here in New Jersey. I am taking advantage of most of them.

I rode Chance yesterday. My primary goal was some serious schooling, and that's exactly what we did. Getting him to take the bit within each gait is not too much of a problem. He's not quite steady yet as balance checks make him put his head up, but for the most part, he stays pretty round.

I had a nice forward trot going from the start. I think my carrying the dressage whip made the difference, but it's hard to tell for sure.

What I decided to focus on was trying to maintain roundness within the transitions, both up and down. Interestingly enough the biggest challenge is walk to trot. We did manage to reach some agreement without too much argument. Asking for a bit extra bend before the transition and then doing a little leg yield into the transition helps a lot. But Chance is not too schooled to work laterally off my leg, so that's another thing we need to work on.

After about 25 minutes, I realized he really needed a break, so we headed out to the trails for a short ride through the woods. It was slow going. Chance really just wanted to walk. I am guessing he was  bit tired from his workout.

Once again, it was a lovely, lovely ride.

Today, after church, lunch out with my fellow choir members, a trip to the art gallery to see a friend's father's watercolors, and a quick shopping trip to the grocery store, I came home.  It was a bit breezy and I ended up taking a nap before going out to the barn.

Then, I decided to take a walk myself. I hiked along the farm field and through the woods for nearly an hour. I kind of sneaked out so Peppercorn would not follow me. When I got home, my neighbor was doing some fence mending for me, so I helped out for another hour or so while the Boys had dinner.

At that point, I was worn out, so I gave the horses Sunday off.

I was a quiet end to the weekend at Follywoods.