circling, stick to me and figure 8

Stick to me was wonderful today with Kelly's suggestions to start by mirroring her energy and do transitions within gaits. We did slow medium and fast walks—she gave me lovely soft backups and offered to trot.

Circling game stunk:
1. Try avoided it by repeatedly sidepassing up next to me, then when that didn’t work for her, she took off at a canter. I may have goofed—she seemed to need some time to get herself together so I let her go—she quickly settled to a nice lope or trot but ignored my slow down transition cues so I let her go awhile then I got tired of it and gave her the hide-the-hiney look and she disengaged and came trotting to me licking and chewing.
2. Maybe I should not let her circle like that—it probably just prolongs the process of getting her over hating circling. (Call an immediate halt to the temper tantrum and find a substitute that will let her change mental gears.)
3. I did get 2 nice draws out of the circle w/o disengaging HQ and did not add on change of direction—made it game over and rewarded.

Figure 8: I think I will go back to the big ring online for falling leaf and s shape to work on draw and drive. It’s the drive part that is broken for figure 8. I did go back to L1 drive front end and HQ and yoyo and that was all good.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day….

Better atmosphere from me today:

dressage patterns and 6 laps canter

liberty: great lead by hocks and tail

rethink basics of stick to me/my energy/stop-go-back-turn/be particular/savvy stick string Z1/5

Mon Sep 28

Today, in the mood to get liberty done, I was really task oriented and I could see that on the video. Also I could see Try's reaction, which then made extra work for me to get results. How interesting!

Sat

Ring wet from rain but marked off dressage ring area in the ring--then walked the pattern, mentally rehearsed pattern, then got Try and we walk/jogged the pattern bareback.

sat

Sat am musings

Tired, sore muscles etc from riding Keystone--who would have thought it--although there is an effort to ask for upward gait transitions and to keep him maintaining gait, he feels soooo safe and easy and his trot at 7 and canter at 4 are so much fun. I look forward to getting more comfortable with sitting canter position in English saddle and to being able to do my no stirrups work with Keystone. BA says we can do lesson with him indefinately, weeks when Morgan can't get in three rides, I can pick up the slack, and perhaps even do a little Parelli online with him. BA says optimum for Keystone at his age is 4 workouts per week (sensible) to keep him from aging prematurely.

Try: If riding Keystone more, then I do not need to bore her with no stirrups posting trot BUT I do need to pay attention to conditioning for her and several lope/canter rides or online/liberty workouts per week.

Liberty: Put camera on top of the car--that works pretty well but haven't figured out exactly how to aim the camera to best cover round pen area.

1 figure 8 - started over and it is improved but I really could use some input from Kelly

2 pedestal/extreme friendly and dismount: really good

3 barrels - sideways 3 is good--need to cue less/be farther away and show some sideways towards

4 lead by hocks/tail: hocks got 10' but Try refused tail--also lead by ??chin/ear--what level

5 stick to me--fun, a little disorganized, good energy, works well if I trot backwards--how about some fast changes of direction? Try doesn't like backing as much.

6 circle game--not really getting the idea tho I did get some nice walk/trot/walk/halt/back on the rail. Ask Kelly or hot line about whether circle should be on the rail???

mon-fri

Well, we have been playing around casually with liberty this week and Marilyn came and rode Try freestyle and I did one freestyle/bareback/no stirrups ride. One day I did dwell til Try came then did a "task" til saw improvement then back to dwell etc.

Then Thur BA and I set up the round pen within the paddock and Try and I had a really positive 15 min together--1/2 of that dwell time.

Fri lesson on Keystone and Try liberty--attempting to find camera angles that work. I would still love to see a better figure 8, sidewards both directions over the barrel, and play with more creativity in the stick to me game. Also I think I have the order of tasks and spacing in the round pen worked out in my mind.

Friday, 1st liberty video

What an interesting day. I had a lovely time with Try and she offered stuff like crazy. However, I was filming and trying to get footage of 5/6 tasks I think I will be using for my audition. So even tho I stayed relaxed, slow, waited for her, she was not as responsive and tasks were not completed as well as I was offering little in the way of leadership.

Leadership/phases and liberty are something for me to rethink completely from where I am now in my journey.