Great Riding!

I hope you had a nice weekend! We had beautiful weather here in Virginia and we really enjoyed it!

On Saturday, as I groomed Buckshot, I checked his front hooves for thrush. After I lifted his feet, I stuck my nose down close to the hooves and didn’t smell anything too bad. The clefts between the frog bulbs are still both quite deep but I didn’t detect any thrush. I didn’t put any thrush medicine on them.

Buckshot was in a good mood and when we went out to the arena, a series of poles were set up. So we began our warm up walking around the poles, adding some circles around some of them, and alternating doing shallow pole bending and wide pole bending. He had good energy at the trot also. When our class started we did a game. Each rider had a tennis ball and had to ride to the other end of the arena, put it in a cone, circle a barrel and ride back. It was a lot of fun! Buckshot was right on board with it and I think he liked it. Then we went on the trail and went through the beautiful, sun illuminated woods. When we arrived at the reining arena, we had a great time trotting and cantering. I noticed that Buckshot’s right canter was uncoordinated. I didn’t know what to make of it, and I tried a couple of times to give him really correct aids and just canter a few strides. It was confusing because he didn’t seem off in any other way, just an uncoordinated right canter. I want to have the BO watch us canter and see if she can see what he is doing, or what seems to be uncoordinated. She can also see if I am giving him contradictory aids and am somehow contributing to this. But overall it was a lovely day and a good ride.

On Sunday we took four horses to the reining clinic in a neighboring county. With about seven other riders, the BO, BOH and myself worked on various maneuvers. Buckshot did really well- he had enthusiastic energy right from the first step. When it was our turn to do a maneuver, we started by trotting and if he had enough forward energy I asked for the canter. He did well at it. Not quite as uncoordinated at the right canter. But it was hard to keep him at the canter more than a few strides. Overall, he worked hard and had great, strong energy for whatever I asked of him, so I was proud of him. We have to keep working on the canter. I guess it is a challenge for many horses to stay at the canter without specific aids being given. When we trot, I can sense when he is about to slow down and I can squeeze a little to keep him trotting. I have a harder time sensing that at the canter. It is a much more challenging gait. It is also a very fun gait to ride! I still enjoy the thrilling aspects of cantering.

What do you still enjoy the most with your horse? And how do you keep your horse cantering?? Suggestions welcome!