Reaching

Today was a light day for me and Cherry. My student canceled her lesson today, so I decided to ride instead. No sense in wasting a perfectly good Sunday. I don't own a horse just to look at her!

So I bundled up and took myself out to the foggy barn. It was cool and calm, no wind blowing. That was rather nice, actually. The barn was peaceful and still, and the fog has a way of creating a tranquil silence over the land. Maybe that's just me idealizing foggy mornings in the Bay Area, but I like the fog all the same.

Cherry was filthy from rolling in the mud, and it took awhile to get her clean enough to tack up. I threw the NR pad on her, and on a whim I put the rhythm beads around her neck. The cheerful jingle bells would be nice in the stillness of the fog.

I hopped on and we headed down to the large field. It's my favorite place to warm up. About 5 acres, there's no need to make sharp turns or small circles, which helps Cherry's aging joints. It's decently flat with no large holes, but the recent wet weather has made it too slippery to work in.

We moved to the dressage court to actually work. Well, we call it a dressage court, but it's really more of a flat, groomed field. It too was rather slippery, but I figured we'd just head into the arena later.

I didn't have much of a plan in mind for today's ride. A little jogging, maybe, perhaps a lap or two of cantering. When I took up contact though, Cherry started to fidget. Grrr, I hate it when she does that! So I decided we'd school a bit at the walk, moving off leg and reaching into the bridle.

Cherry is an intelligent horse and gets bored easily. When she starts to fuss, you have to do something that occupies her brain. Continuing along the rail just makes her worse. I've found that arbitrary patterns work best if heading out on a trail ride isn't an option. This is what I did today.

I asked for random circles, changes of rein, and figure eights. Sometimes I'd lose interest halfway through a circle and we'd head off in the opposite direction. Slowly, Cherry calmed down and was attentive to my directions. I asked her to lower her head and move into the contact.

Once she was paying attention, I started asking for some backing and lateral work. Starting with simply halting and backing up and moving on to sidepassing and leg yields. Cherry, now fully engaged, was now starting to drop her head and really reach down into the contact. Hurray!

After every lateral movement, she'd reach down to her knees. It was not the impatient, naughty yanking on the reins that she sometimes does, but a true reaching into the bridle accompanied by lifting of the back and stepping under with the hind legs. Ah, bliss! All those dressage lessons were not taken in vain!

I kept up with the gentle circling, backing up, and sidepassing for a couple more minutes, with Cherry giving me nice loooooong stretches into the bridle. Then, I decided that we should end on a good note, and the next time she really dropped her head and stretched out her topline, I slowly let my reins out. I didn't want to drop her, but I wanted to release while she was doing what I wanted. On a long rein she stretched her nose all the way to the ground for a few strides, then moved out in a beautiful free walk. It was a good ride.

We don't often do this, usually out of laziness or impatience on both our parts. I really should do it more often, it's a wonderful exercise. We have to be in the right mood, though. If one of us is feeling frusterated or impatient, it doesn't work and we end up fighting.

I ended the day with letting her roll in the arena and doing cookie stretches. I'm not sure what's going on, but Cherry's back seems to be loosening up. She NEVER used to roll all the way over, now I've watched her do it half a dozen times over the last few weeks. I'm thinking this is a good thing, and hopefully a sign that all the bareback riding we've been doing recently is not harming her back (despire hysterical online claims to the contrary).

I'm not entirely sure if the cookie stretches are helping her back or not. We'll see what the chiro (aka the Witch Doctor) has to say the next time he makes the horse rounds. Last fall Cherry was not out anywhere, which was exciting to learn. Hopefully she's stayed that way. Regardless of effectiveness, Cherry LOVES cookie stretches. Any activity that involves food is a-okay with her.