Back track to Boxing Day 2009

Had a really good ride on Boxing Day. I had promised my friends daughter Erica that she could ride Pinto for a bit. Erica is 9 and has been riding for about 3 years. Only this year has she graduated from the little ponys to the big ponys/small horses because she is getting so tall! Erica is a good little rider, but does suffer with confidence problems at times.

It was freezing cold outside so I started off very gently, just in walk asking Pinto for correct bend, then for counter bend down the long sides of the manege. For myself I concentrated on dropping the weight into my thighs and having soft calves and not drawing my heel up to give an aid. While I was doing this I was keeping an inside track as there was another rider in the manege. I don't mind sharing, but I do wish people would use common courtesy. e.g. I was using the inside track because I was working in walk (the faster paces have priority on the piste), but the other rider who was kicking her horse into a canter (*bangshead*) then seemed to have no control over direction and her horse was all over the place. Fortunately all the horses know each other well as they are out as a herd, and Pinto is very easy going and tends not to mind being cut up or being presented with a bum right under his nose - however *I* find it terribly frustrating.

Anyway, once Pinto was soft and listening to me we moved up into trot, and basically concentrated on the same things. I had really nice "listening ears" and Pinto himself felt very soft and springy, if a tad lazy. Once we were moving out nicely I concentrated on transitions, walk/trot/walk on the markers... at least that was my intention! Pinto had other ideas, and was jiggy-jiggy-jog-jog when asked from trot to walk. then we had him stargazing and yawing his head, silly boy. I was really proud of myself though, and not once did I pull on the reins, I just kept asking with my seat and voice and eventually he responded. At this point he got lots of praise and scritches. Then we repeat... and repeat... and repeat. Eventually we made a very nice transition from trot to walk with no jogging at which point we changed the rein and started the exercise again... and again... and again

Once we could go from trot to walk without jogging, I then started on walk/halt. Pinto does stop so nicely - for a milisecond, then he sidles, steps forward, swings his bum out etc *rolleyes* Eventually we managed a nice, immobile, halt for 3 seconds and I called it a day. He got lots of scritches.

Then Erica got on. I was riding in my dressage saddle as it has the narrowest twist of all my saddles, but she was still riding with her legs sticking out sideways a bit lol. Not so amazingly (to me anyway) Erica didn't look too small on Pinto, especially in the dressage saddle with a nice long leg (for some reason all the kids are taught to ride with their knees up in thier armpits). She was a bit nervous at first and her mum walked around with her for the first five minutes. Pinto loves little kids, and he really does look after them. He went off into a very nice soft trot when asked to, and stopped nicely when asked to. I was then a bit evil, and asked Erica if she wanted to do some bars on the ground. Although a bit hesitant at first, she agreed, and after walking over them at first, she was soon trottinig over them like a pro. Being even more evil I saked if she wanted to do a small jump, and made a 20cm x which is just about as low as you can go (and definitely *my* sized jump lol). Well I think Pinto lifted his legs a little higher, but to him it was no different than a bar on the ground. We eventually got up to a 80cm x, and Pinto had a little canter (yes, Pinto... a "little" canter!) after it, and Erica was beaming from ear to ear

I was so proud of Erica. On her last jump, Pinto started to canter a little before the jump which scared her a little, and then he continued after it, but she asked him to slow down nicely without pulling on the reins.

Pinto then showed himself up after Ericas mum got on, as he just flew the jump almost at a full gallop and Megan fell off. Pinto was then really antsy and was completely hyped, so we spent a long time just asking him to walk past the jump nice and calmly, before going back to bars on the ground, then asking him to walk over a raised pole and eventually trot over a small x pole. By this time Pinto was really quite warm, so we untacked him in the manege and put his cooler on, before walking back to his box.

I eventally left the yard with Pinto all tucked up, knee deep in hay