I stopped in to see Cooper first before heading out for my riding lesson. The cross ties were too high and short for him so I ground tied him to groom him a little. He was very good when I was there and as soon as I left the room and left him with my husband he started to walk away. My husband is too soft with Cooper and our dog LOL

The barn manager says that Cooper has such good ground manners, I was happy to hear that. One woman that was there says she thinks she sees Morgan in him.…

This was my last lesson at Five Star Ranch with Cooper. I have learned so much in the short time we have been riding together there. I will miss the lessons on him but it was getting too much driving there on a work night and putting gas in my truck.

I moved him to a new barn yesterday that is 15-20 minute drive from home. There are no trails but that is ok as I am not that interested anymore in doing that. I hope to be able to see him more often and not dread that long drive all the…

We did the serpentine exercise again from one end of the arena to the other.

This time I was also working on trying to get Coopers head lower.

Like the coach says, it's very ugly looking during training, but he was starting to lower his head near the end of the night, when I finally started to relax!!

He was moving great, well a little spooky in one corner where the skid was up against the wall.

There was actually another horse going faster than him and passing us…

We were learning to yield the hind end at a walk.

The hour was spent on one side, next time I am up will have to do the other side. Walk forward in a straight line and press our leg just behind the cinch for a count of 2. If he didn't move hind end then would pull the rein and get him to yield his hind until his hips moved over. Then walk back in the same direction you were going and start over.

He finally did a good one near the end of the hour and ended on that. Hope to do…

We learned to do square corners tonight. It was hard for Cooper and myself. We were catching on but will have to practice with this one a lot. I have to learn to release and try it softer, if he doesn't get it then go back to a firmer command. We road a straight line and at the end it was a little like a turn on the haunches while trying to keep jogging and continue on in a straight line again. We did it away from the wall. Cooper would come to a walk most of the time but did do some good…

I had an exhausting trip to my lesson at North Fork last weekend, but at least I bought twelve new horse books, eleven of which I had never seen or read (I just could not resist buying C. W. Anderson's "Heads Up, Heels Down".)  I found two books on riding written in the 1930's; a reprint of a 1859 book; the best behavior book I've read ("Horses Behavin' Badly" by Dr. Jim and Lynda McCall); and some new overstocked and used dressage books (I REALLY recommend "The…

The foundation of Dressage for the rider/horse is rhythm. I define that as a balanced combination of relaxation and forward. It sounds deceptively simple.

A rider/horse can not sacrifice forward for relaxation, or relaxation for forward. The art of riding is in negotiating the balance of the two in both the rider and the horse. Forward must be consistent; sometimes…

Maybe…

The Monday before last I had a lesson with Madeleine Austin. She is a very talented dressage rider and trainer and the mother of another very talented dressage rider and trainer. In my lesson we worked on my very tight hips and ankles. I did many tours of the arena stretching my legs out and back one after the other. It did help loosen my hips up. I am thankful for the very quiet school horse I was on during this, since…

BRRR. It is COLD outside, when I woke up it was still in the high 20's F with a brisk wind. Since I no longer have horses I could stay warm this morning. I am so glad not to have to carry feed (I always fed more for the cold), hay, warm water (to wet the feed), and break open the ice on the water trough. With my MS this had gotten REAL challenging. Such a luxury to be able to stay inside. No frozen fingers or toes, and I do not have to feel sorry for the shivering…

My darling Maggie has been in some intense training of late, with me riding on weekends and her getting training during the week. She's progressed to long lining and it's going quite well. So, then it's up to me to keep everything moving forward, but I hadn't had a lesson in weeks. Now that doesn't seem like a long time, but really, we're trying to move forward and I don't want to be hindering progress.

So, last night, I rode and had a lesson. I KNEW IT, I was NOT riding quite…

Well, I have given up on going back to using regular bits for now, it is back to learning all the subtleties of the Wellep bits! Mia had behaved quite well when I used the Mullen mouthed snaffle, but she communicated to me that she MISSED the mouthpiece of the Wellep. So I got the regular cheeked Wellep snaffle out and sat there trying to figure out how I could use the bit on Mia and still have the stability I needed to keep good contact. Finally I decided on bit converters,…

We had a clinic this past weekend with a very good clinician we've ridden with before. This week hasn't been all that great, Maggie dumping my trainer and all that, but, I expected a good ride. Now, we've been working on the trot with the girl, less on the canter. But, we were doing great, walk (quit moving so much), trot (softer and wait in the transition), and then the left lead canter, quite nice, developmental, but nice. Unfortunately, the right lead canter is not so good, so more right…

Well, two weeks ago I got to have a lesson at the present incarnation of my old horsie alma-mater, North Fork School of Equitation up in Jefferson, MD. I got there early, and got to see Karen Fenwick, who runs the school, give a group lesson. This was interesting, it was a pretty big lesson, 12 people, from college age kids to a lady who looked like she was in her sixties, with physical shapes running from thin and sleek to quite plump. There was even a MALE student running…

I got to ride Mia twice this week, but, since Debbie wrenched her back badly, I didn't get a riding lesson. So I worked on things in my position that Debbie had been getting after me about, mostly making sure that my lower leg did not go too far back. Debbie DOES NOT like seeing the whole girth when I am riding, she wants my lower leg right at the girth. Of course…