From racing to riding... the training diary of an off the track Standardbred

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Cold. Wind. Rain. SNOW? Gotta love New England

So the past few days have felt like winter. It was freezing outside! I had to blanket the boys! IT was also rainy...with a few flurries of snow here and there that never hit the ground, but still...SNOW? Umm...Mother Nature, it is the end of April. Thankyouverymuch.

Monday I gave Jet the day off because we worked a lot on Sunday! W/t/c and jumping! We set up a vertical this time and he did it wonderfully! He didn't refuse once! We are definately getting somewhere. When we start jumping, he gets excited and to the right he forgets how to slow down, wait, and bend....something to work on.

Tuesday it was rainy..

Wednesday we did flat work. It was windy and cooler than normal. He was definately feeling the weather! We have started to do walk, one trot lap, then canter a bit to let him stretch out. He likes this alot and works soooo much better afterwards. It definately allows him to stretch out and have fun! Our left lead is definately easier to pick up and maintain. He is more balanced in that direction and pushes more from his hind end. To the right....it sorta falls apart. He races around and leans in. This is because he is unbalanced I think. We will work on it. His transitions are getting better though! Once we start cantering he is very eager to go again. Once we do it once, the transitions are better since he knows what I am asking. It also helps him when I use voice commands. If we cantered and he is ready to gallop off, I just say, "Easy...trot!" and he never bolts. He just merrily goes along at a nice trot. Our ride was short, but productive.

Today was a longgggg ride. A bit of everything. We combined everything that we did from the past week or so and put it into one ride. We worked on everything from flat, jumping, bending, our pace, etc. and he did fantastically! We had a LOT of walking breaks inbetween everything because I am not the type of person to work my horse for an hour and a half straight of just galloping and jumping. Jet is still green and I want everything to be a positive experience for him. We cantered in both directions. He did really well both directions but the left lead needs more work than the right. He was asking for the bit when we trotted. It was so nice to  have him reaching underneath himself! Jumping went REALLY well. He actually tucked up for about half of the jumps! I love my boy<3

Friday was a day off. I was just too tired to do anything. Ohwell... this weekend is supposed to be nice so I can ride both days!

-Em and Jet