Collection

Yesterday, I was off from work, and it so happened that Mark, Dianne and Elisabeth all played hookie from their jobs! So in the afternoon, all 4 of us tacked up for a trail ride and rode in the park for about an hour and a half. Another girl from a nearby barn, who is Mark's neighbor, joined us on her little Arabian part of the way.

Lily was feeling fresh after having had Monday off, but was a good girl most of the way. We looped around the outskirts of the park, following the road, and all 5 of us trotted on the straightaway that runs parallel to the highway (there is a fence and grass between the park road and the highway). I held Lily back, trotting right behind the Arabian and Crissy. Lily arched her neck, lightening on the bit, and proceeded to collect beautifully. Mark and Dianne were trotting behind us, and Beau bumped into Lily as they caught up to us. This made Lily jump, and she tried to use it as an excuse to go into a canter. I sat deeper in the saddle and half-halted to keep her at a trot, but she fought me, trotting sideways into the street in a perfect half-pass! I could not keep her straight. I tried bringing her down to a walk, but she was too riled up-she continued to trot sideways to one side or another, until we came around onto the powerlines, when everyone slowed to a walk. She finally responded and relaxed a little, and I brought her to the end of the pack, next to Dianne and Pink. As we moved further down the powerlines, though, both Pink and Lily continued to attempt to trot, practically piaffeing in unison when Dianne and I held them back. You'd think they'd rehearsed it!

The girl on the Arabian took off, cantering away on her own, and we turned around and went into the main trails. It was a nice ride. After about half an hour in the trails, we came back out on the other side of the park and headed back. There is a steep hill on this side of the park, and both Beau and Crissy, in the lead, cantered up it. I was right behind Crissy, and tried to hold Lily back at a trot to make her work harder. Nope. She arched her neck again, not fighting me at all, but I felt her gather herself up like a spring then leaped up the hill in 2 enormous strides, catching about 3 feet of air with each stride. It scared me for a second (my previous horse bucked his way up a hill on 2 separate occassions with me on him and it was a miracle I stayed on-this gave me a momentary flashback) but then I realized that the movement had been so smooth she hadn't unseated me at all. I'd never felt so much power from her. 7 months of conditioning is starting to really show. Going down the hill on the other side was a greater challenge, because Lily wanted to hurry after Beau and Crissy, who were already crossing the street on the other side, and Pink was also giving Dianne a hard time-it was too steep a hill for the 2 mares to be cantering down it safely. I shouted at Elisabeth to wait for us, and both her and Mark turned around and came back to meet us. Pink and Lily immediately settled down and proceeded at a walk.

Back at the barn, I worked Lily at the trot in the arena for another 10 minutes, to see if we could re-create that same trot she'd done for me in the park twice already. I was able to get her into that same smooth collected trot, with her light on the bit and her hind legs stepping underneath her. We did several changes of direction and circles in the arena to see if she'd stay the same going both ways, and it worked-she did. She played with the contact, stretching her head down to get me to loosen the hold on the reins, but this time I didn't allow her to take the reins out of my hands like on our last ride in the arena-I stayed firm, only considerably lightening my touch on the reins when she lightened herself on the the bit. She continues to figure things out; she worked awesome!

Afterwards, I turned her out with her dinner, and when Judy arrived at the barn, I declared that our final goal wasn't Second Level Dressage-it was now Fourth! *lol* Working Equitation, here we come!