Saturday, December 6, 2008

Dressage ring

Today we worked in the dressage ring for the first time. The dressage ring has no real fence and is closer to the road/driveway and other distractions.

First, I addressed Drifter standing at the mounting block, which she has not been fond of lately. We did a lot of walk and some trot for our session today. I focused on correct bending and ended with some leg-yielding and an attempt to introduce shoulder-fore. I needed to remind her to remain rhythmical and not speed up facing the barn. We practiced circles that were round with good bend in both directions. She was mostly compliant, but seemed a little foot sore. We just had our first good freeze here and the pastures are pitted with muddy frozen horse hoof holes now. Overall, she was very good in a new work environment.

Drifter is approximately 204 days in foal. She is due April 10-24, since we don't know her true breeding date. The foal is the size of a beagle and growing into a goat sized fetus with fuzzy whiskers. The pregnancy is taking more out of her and she appears hungry all the time. We have stopped all cantering and are focusing on quality trot and walk work. Drifter is very friendly right now and has even been coming up to the fence for me when I call her.

1 comment:

  1. In September I posted on your blog "Riding" And I have still been following your blog.

    Each time I read what all you have done with her I just about cry. I am so glad that you found her. And I am so glad that like you said she is not being used for just babies.

    She has done a complete turn around. I was wondering if we could talk sometime? I have both GMail and Yahoo. My gmail is

    thunderbayranch@gmail.com

    and my yahoo is

    thunderbayranch@yahoo.com

    I would love to be able to talk to you again!

    ReplyDelete