First Time in Closed Bridle
Thursday was another lesson with Michelle and Zetahra. I failed in my desire to get the bridle fitted to her this last week. Luckily when I put the bridle on it fit just fine. Apparently Kitt's fat head (and I say that in an affectionate, loving way) is compensated by Z's length (though her head isn't thin by any means). I left the butterfly on and just used the snaffle setting. She didn't seem to mind the French Link at all either.
She didn't seem to mind the blinders at all. We joked that her forelock prepped her for the blinders. When I first put the bridle on I'm pretty sure she was completely blind for a moment, the blinders covering the sides and the forelock the rest. She moved her head a little more to compensate for her limited vision, but that aside she focused right in on the work at hand.
After a brief warm-up we hooked her to the drag and worked on getting her to hold herself up a bit better through the turns. I asked her to trot with it a couple times, which was quite humorous. She went to trot, thought that didn't give enough power, tried to canter and lost her forward momentum with each jump. I joked about teaching her to piaffe and passage with the drag. The point at least was that she made the effort. Both of us were quite happy and we had another 10 minutes in the lesson when we called it good with the drag. We played a bit with double-lungeing again to get her to cone off the bit and lift her shoulder through the turns. She sharpened up a bit and we callwd it good. Most excellent actually. Michelle said she doesn't really see anything that says I can't put her to next week, but I think next lesson we'll play with the false shafts. I doubt things will change with the blinders, but we'll cover our bases.
I think the lesson after that we'll officially introduce the cart and the last one ... we'll see! I don't know if I want to wait until March to have the first hitch or not. I don't think it'll mayter to Z either way. I shall have to think on this. Definitely use the work cart because it has an easy exit point just in case. Speaking of which I need to hit the True Value to see about shackle bolts and have Chris pull the singletree off the work cart to have the ends shortened and holes drilled for the aforementioned shacklebolts.
Makes me think I actually know what I'm doing needing only five sessions under Michelle to have her feel we're ready to move on. I'm excited and a little anxious. You try to get rid of all the question marks you can, but you never quite know until you finally hitch up or swing that leg over.
She didn't seem to mind the blinders at all. We joked that her forelock prepped her for the blinders. When I first put the bridle on I'm pretty sure she was completely blind for a moment, the blinders covering the sides and the forelock the rest. She moved her head a little more to compensate for her limited vision, but that aside she focused right in on the work at hand.
After a brief warm-up we hooked her to the drag and worked on getting her to hold herself up a bit better through the turns. I asked her to trot with it a couple times, which was quite humorous. She went to trot, thought that didn't give enough power, tried to canter and lost her forward momentum with each jump. I joked about teaching her to piaffe and passage with the drag. The point at least was that she made the effort. Both of us were quite happy and we had another 10 minutes in the lesson when we called it good with the drag. We played a bit with double-lungeing again to get her to cone off the bit and lift her shoulder through the turns. She sharpened up a bit and we callwd it good. Most excellent actually. Michelle said she doesn't really see anything that says I can't put her to next week, but I think next lesson we'll play with the false shafts. I doubt things will change with the blinders, but we'll cover our bases.
I think the lesson after that we'll officially introduce the cart and the last one ... we'll see! I don't know if I want to wait until March to have the first hitch or not. I don't think it'll mayter to Z either way. I shall have to think on this. Definitely use the work cart because it has an easy exit point just in case. Speaking of which I need to hit the True Value to see about shackle bolts and have Chris pull the singletree off the work cart to have the ends shortened and holes drilled for the aforementioned shacklebolts.
Makes me think I actually know what I'm doing needing only five sessions under Michelle to have her feel we're ready to move on. I'm excited and a little anxious. You try to get rid of all the question marks you can, but you never quite know until you finally hitch up or swing that leg over.