And then left Zierra standing in the aisle while I rode Jynx. She called and danced a little when we first left but surprisingly calmed right down - I left the arena door open a crack so I could keep an eye on her but other then calling every 10 minutes or so, she basically just want to sleep! On the extreme bright side, Jynx didn't care at all granted with the cracked arena door I think she was a little "reassured" that she had company! She usually works fine solo anyway, she only acts up when a friend comes and goes. As long as they're constantly there or constantly awya, she's fine.
What a productive ride! We went right into the four posting four sitting exercise Kali tried with me yesterday and I FINALLY GOT IT. HALLELUJAH! After a few circles it was like everything clicked and I was finally able to do the exercise without having to check my diagonal constantly or realize suddenly we weren't even going in a circle anymore I was so distracted! I have to say, it's definitely a favorite exercise already! Once I got it figured out, it smooth Jynx out SO amazingly it was awesome! We've always had issues with me transitioning from posting to sitting trot and Jynx's head coming up, getting shorter, tenser, etc. This exercise eliminated all the problems! I was so happy!
We went into some shorten and lengthen trot down the long side and she was great - staying long in the neck, and keeping her head down. We worked on some diagonal lines as well as she tends to be VERY wiggly on the diagonal and speed up, tense up, raise her head, etc. I went into sitting trot and we worked on some lovely leg yields - she's so good at them now I can REALLY concentrate on myself and keeping my hands low, shoulder down, not collapsing. We also did some shoulder in which to the left was just phenomenal - as good as her leg yields now, so fluid and supple without any resistance. Not quite as smooth to the right but still extremely lovely. Travers, as usual, was a little more tricky but no getting stuck today which is a huge plus!
We went into canter and having the arena all to myself, went immediately into some 15m circles after a little shortening and lengthening. She was just BRILLIANT. I'm running out of words to describe how stunning my horse is. We worked on three 15m circles down a long side and it went just great. Not worrying about other riders I was able to really focus on supporting her as she's still quite weak and obviously slows and wants to break stride halfway through. We got through all of them without breaking stride and her staying nice and listening to me! I was so proud!
I walked her out and then took her out to switch ponies - took Zierra into the ring and left Jynx in the aisle to dry off and all went great, no calling! Zierra worked amazing tonight as well after an initial fight over the cattle chute - AGAIN. Once I got her past it, we had a brilliant workout as well! I worked on serpentines with her, and a lot of canter work - she did fantastic on the diagonal line exercise where we canter down the diagonal line, trot at X and then pick up the new lead at C/A. I was really surprised how well she was on my outside leg cue - most of her transitions were quite smooth as opposed to racing into the canter. Maybe she still does remember her training from 7 years ago! I was also immensely proud of her for getting a flying lead change when I asked for it! And both legs! She's famous for only switching in the front or being late in the back. She's not really balanced or supple enough to do flyings, but she has them for the most part on the pattern and that's all that really matters at this point. I wish I had time to take her back to basics and start from scratch but it's just not feasible so I'll do my best to make this all go as smoothly as I can for her! They both worked great today!
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