Jul 26, 2013 14:32
My little Western pony is staying true to her roots. In an effort to keep her more engaged and interested in the arena, I set up some buckets (in lieu of cones as we don't have any) in a clover leaf pattern today. After a little bit of ground work to get her listening to me, I hopped on and headed towards the buckets. Apparently, the buckets triggered something in her that brought her to life, re-engaging her muscle memory into moving through a clover leaf pattern automatically. I barely had to steer her! She was eager to work and interested in what we were doing. She worked so well that after a couple of rounds of the pattern, I moved out to the wall and worked her in walk, trot, canter transitions and ended with us riding the PATH test pattern that I've been practicing on Teddy. She did it all perfectly. Admittedly, I could've looked prettier and we were a little messy in parts due to my riding skill rather than her not listening. For once, we flowed and I wasn't fighting to get her attention. I gave her plenty of praise and cuddles and we finished on a good note. We were connected and we had FUN!
Today is a good day :-D