7/4/2013

Schooling Miaren at Home

Miaren was very energetic this morning

Warming up we practiced changing leads over a fence

Coming in on the left lead he nicely patted the ground with his hind feet getting a good spot

Eyes down and watching for the lead, which he got every time.

It's nice seeing his hind legs together. It would be nicer if my hips were back and leg forward. That's what happens when I practice without eyes on the ground.

Posing over the fence. Too forward, but Miaren's looking good and having fun.

And the correct lead using those hind end muscles

Balancing coming around the corner as we head for the jump

Building up to jumping a jump with a drop on the landing side. Balancing going down the slope. Staying in a canter was easy this day.

First over a pole with the drop. Here's where he can rush and get on the forehand. The first few times through he'd pick up speed on the slope and only start to balance as we turned uphill.

So this time I asked him to stop straight away from the jump. He listened and responded without fighting too much. Here he's already trying to balance enough to stop.

And a few strides later a nice halt. He was keyed up this day, but still very obedient. He was looking for the jumps and having fun.

My position's pretty solid when I'm riding defensively. Not a huge release over the jump, but I was careful to give so he'd be happy to do it again.

He was under himself heading downhill and we had another good halt.

And the jump. Not very big, but landing off a slight drop with a slope afterwards is something I need to work on for my confidence.