Monday, March 26, 2012

Dinah gets a hair cut

I realized it has been a while since I last did a blog post. I think getting Dinah's teeth done has made a world of difference for her. It is amazing to me how much her teeth were affecting her whole body and way of moving. It makes sense, but seeing the change in the horse was really eye opening for me. Last week I rode her in the covered arena and we even tried a little canter! She was not so sure about cantering with me on her back, but she did it. We had a little run in with the wall of the arena after one canter, but besides that, she was very good. No buck or silly business. At this point, teaching Dinah to go forward is the goal. As long as she moves forward from my leg, I am happy with her. I am starting to introduce bending, circles and moving off my leg. I also have been rinsing Dinah off and trying to get her used to as many stimuli as possible so that when she gets to the competition she will be calm. Darby has still been watching me ride Dinah to make sure we are safe and to help me if we get in a tough spot. Darby also gave Dinah a cute mane trim, she looks very fancy now! Darby's dad came to visit Dinah, so I got to practice riding her in front of an audience.
I longed her in a different arena, to start getting her used to being worked in different places. She handled it like a champ, and was not even phased by horses riding by. The next day I longed her again in the covered arena because it was pouring rain. I was very proud of her because she was very good even though she could barely hear my voice commands over the noise of the rain on the roof. She really tries very hard and is such a good girl.
Yesterday I rode her in the jumping arena and she was great. I am starting to ride her with more contact and ask her not only to go forward but to carry herself with a little bend and balance. I was having a little trouble getting her to go forward so I carried a dressage whip. She was much better with the whip, I think I will carry one from now on. I introduced turn on the forehand, where Dinah is supposed to rotate her body around her inside front leg. I taught it to her starting with her body on the rail to give her confidence. I created a little resistance with my hands, moved my outside leg back, and asked her to step over with her haunches. She thought about it for a minute, and then stepped over, she is so smart! I am going to ride her again today. This coming week we are going to work on trailer loading and weather permitting, go out on the trail.

2 comments:

  1. She looks great!!! You are doing such an awesome job :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow!! She looks great! Picture #3 with that nice "V" in the trot looks especially nice! Good job to all of you!

    ReplyDelete