Back to School and the Fifth Ride

After a nice and relaxing holiday at home, it is time to get on with school life. This is actually going to be my last quarter at Cal Poly as an undergraduate and I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to be doing after that. Talk about stressful.

On the brighter side, this is probably the most excited I have been for the course load I have: Equine Reproduction, Equine Exercise Physiology, and Group Performance of Literature. Umm, yes please!

When coming back, I made the decision to go to a different barn. While the other place was good for some more growing up and rehabilitation, both horses are now WTC undersaddle, so I needed something more conducive to that. I am now at a farm that is actually right down the street from the other place that is much more geared toward training. There are three arenas, an indoor, a dressage court, and a huge jumping arena, plus excellent roads for walking out on and even some areas where the footing is good enough for trot sets. Plus, the pastures and turn-outs are all irrigated and have grass in them year round, which is unheard of in California. I think this will definitely be a positive change. Plus, Don Sachey comes in for monthly clinics, which is neat!

The Fifth Ride!

And, yes, I rode Yves for the fifth time today and for his first time not at Elvenstar. Also, Jeff wasn't able to come and help me out, so it was completely solo. After a quick lunge, which included some seriously huge bucks, I stood him next to the mounting block, patted him down a bit, and then hopped on... nothing happened. He just stood there like an old timer. I swear this horse was born broke.

And then he reminded me that he wasn't. Any steering I had last time was no where to be found and he was seriously sizing up the arena fencing with me on him. Fences are for containment, not for heavy contemplation of escape route! After bouncing off the walls a bit, he remembered his training and was super baby again. He is starting to carry himself rounder over the topline and is giving me an awesome feel of the reins in the trot. In the canter, he is getting comfortable with the contact, but it'll take some time until he is working better there. He is also already getting the concept of bending around my inside leg and pushing into the outside rein. As I said, born broke.

(For those reading for the purposes of working with their own baby, I am not asking him to go on the bit, I am more giving him the opportunity to go on the bit by riding him as if he was on the bit. In general, I believe in riding babies as if they weren't babies to a certain extent since correct riding allows them to progress faster than coddling the weaknesses associated with babyhood. Because of his build, he likes to travel round, and because of his training on the lunge, he knows how to look for the contact, making my job all that much easier.)

People at the barn are beginning to realize that he is super baby, too. One woman who is a trainer there asked his breeding because, "he looks like a really fancy Thoroughbred." Yay! That is exactly what I was going for with this cross!

This weekend Jeff will be able to come out and take some more video of Yves and me. It will be neat to see the steep learning curve he is on since only three rides ago.