Another Good Ride

Blackie was quite nice tonight. A little jumpy, it's pretty cold and that always makes him feel fresh. We walked 10min in hand for warm up. Got on and he actually felt pretty good. Got some inspiration today from an article I read.

This is a piece from an article on Anky & Sjef. I don't like alot of what they do, but I can't agree with this more: "Timing is really important if you want to have a conversation with your horse, a lot of riders have terrible timing. If you can't time, you can't talk, if you react too late on something the horse is trying to tell you, the horse doesn't understand the answer any more. You have to be very quick, if he presents you with something, you have to give an immediate reaction, then he can understand. If you do the 'good' reaction but you do it two or three seconds too late, there is no connection any more, it is very important to get the timing right, so that you can talk with each other."
"Say you are standing still, and you want the horse to walk. If you watch a lot of riders, they put the leg on, but nothing happens for one or two seconds, so they actually teach the horse to be late to the aids. "

So I got on tonight with that in mind. I want FORWARD RIGHT NOW! And that is what I focused on, along with simply staying even between the aids.

-Even and balanced in the reins
-Not avoiding the left rein/outside rein
-Legs draped like a wet towel
-Toes Up
-Shoulders Down
-Lots of Give

I really wanted Blackie to KNOW that I was going to send him forward into soft/giving hands, but that I meant he really needed to go forward. It only took a few minutes for him to take the contact and stay with me. I kept telling myself " I will NOT drag you around the arena" - So he needed to go and I made sure to give where needed. All in all is was quite a nice ride.