Sweetpeacefuldream had a photo shoot today in the arena, and then we got some nice conformation photos of her.
I had the jumps set a little differently in the arena today, so we got to jump a simple course of cross rails, a small vertical, and her first oxer! I had them set up so that I could canter figure eights around the arena and add in little fences when she was balanced and ready.
Miss Pea impressed both friends who were in the arena with me by demonstrating her capabilities with flying lead changes. Now that she and I are communicating more clearly and she understands better what I want, all it takes is a simple weight shift to get her to change leads. Her figure eight course of jumps was very quiet and easy because I spent all that time early on, walking and trotting on a loose rein teaching her to respond to my weight shifts and breathing. She was able to jump her little oxer, land on whichever lead I asked for, and then slow down and take the tight corner at the end of the arena.
She really seems to enjoy this, and I feel very confident channeling her into show jumping for the makeover! It's wonderful to have a horse who is sound in mind and body, smart, and eager to do things correctly. She is a stellar example of how nice on OTTB can be even with minimal off track training.
When Miss Pea successfully hopped over her first oxer I couldn't help but cheer! She seemed pretty proud of herself, too!
I really like this last photo because you can see that Miss Pea and I have exactly the same color hair! Look out, the redheaded mares are going to Kentucky!
No comments:
Post a Comment