Tonight we cantered.
He is still a little rough going to the right but he is trying very hard for me. I didn't worry much about asking him to be low, since he is actually more balanced with his head higher (he feels super heavy on the forehand when his head goes low) and my goal is for him to be comfortable at the canter. We have to find our rhythm first. To the left he was smooth and managed a 20 m circle without needing to cross canter.
We did some trot serpentines, where I pretended we were doing the slalom poles without the poles being set up. He gave me good bend and some great changes of direction. If I ride on Friday, I am going to set up poles for us to practice our trot on. He was very good inside but distracted and hyper when we finally tried it on the WE course outside.
We also pulled out poles and everyone in the arena tried the L shaped sidepass. Ashke was very confused when we did the L with his hind feet to the inside of the L instead of to the outside. Two tries, though, and he had it.
We also did a couple of jumps over the straw bales, but the last time he felt weak in the hind end, so we stopped. He's not lame, but he still has some things to strengthen.
There is a WE fun day in Fort Collins in August I may try to go to. Marquette might haul up with us and check it out. N will be in NY or I would make her come with us too.
Our plan is to take T and his brand new bike out for a ride on Saturday to Chatfield. Hopefully, the new bike will cure his woes.
It was 66 and raining hard on my way to the barn tonight. The projected high for next Weds. is 106.
Colorado is psycho this year.
Our weather is being super funky too! I love the cooler temps though.
ReplyDeleteNot looking forward to the big heat-up. At all.
ReplyDeleteI think the weather is psycho everywhere this year. It sounds like Ashke is doing well. Chrome cross canters when he does flying changes (basically he just changes in the front) out in the pasture so I have a feeling we are going to have similar problems lol.
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