Riding Diary: 19

Horse: Baby Quiz.

Bit: Straight Shank Roller Bit

Time: 1.5 hr

Quiz during her "cool down".

Ride: We started the ride with a nice warmup, trotting the poles, etc. Then we moved into a lope, Quiz is really responsive on the shank bit, it just provides that titch more check that I think she needs. I feel as if I can ride her on a much looser rein, and I think that helps to keep her calm. We loped nice and slow around the arena, I focused on keeping my hands wide and low, and we ended up loping the poles quite nicely a few times. I was a happy camper with that.

Her jog is so wonderful, after the last week and a half, riding other horses at the jog.. I realize just how smooth of a horse she really is. We've graduated to loose rein jogging, and she's starting to really drop her head and carry herself more with her back end.

Then we moved on to ground poles... well... you can't have too many good lessons, or too many good moments in a lesson.. because then you wouldn't be learning now, would you? Ground poles are my nemesis, I fall apart. I can never figure out when to leave the rail, Quiz and I end up squirming through those poles, she half leaps through them. However, after one pole, then two, and then three... I think we had at least 3 good lopes through each of them at a circle, and we quit for the day.

Then I went to the outdoor arena to cool Miss Thang down, and she was zooming around like a crazy person! Quiz... not the point of a cool down. She had cooled off and I went inside to untack her, and her entire back was still a hot mess. So back to the outdoor we went! She got a really good roll in - she loves to roll, it makes me laugh. Then she pranced around with weeds that had been dug up hanging out of her mouth - another laugh from me. Finally, after all the grooming was said and done, I let her out to her new outdoor paddock and after a buck and a sprint, she finally resigned herself to grazing. Such a silly princess. I will miss her very much come summer.

For Next Time: Ground Poles - Keep inside hand out and low, focus on checking before, and after, but not throughout. Work on keeping a line from the rail, through the poles, back to the rail. Basically... do the ground poles better.