Post by 5natives on Nov 26, 2015 17:51:03 GMT -1
Hello everybody, it's been a few weeks now since I have been riding M's little Dales mare, Amba and we are both having a blast and she is learning lots!.
I ride her every other day so I have time to pamper my golden oldie mare:The Spud!.
M and I decide a route, and off we go!
Amba is really progressing, we had a 'lightbulb' moment on Tuesday morning, when I rode her to the Windmill farm and back and from the outset, she was sharper off the leg and my persistence in maintaining that desired 1234, 1234, 1234 marching walk rhythm payed off when I didn't hardly have to remind her to maintain it!!
She now skips into trot, rather than having to be nagged and is levelling up when I change diagonals.
Once a week, M opens the gate for us into a huge sheep field just down the lane and the farmer happily lets us ride wherever we want- brilliant! A perfect chance to school her and keep her fresh without the confinement of a school (which are lucky to have, but barely use). Amba is just great in open spaces, even with the sheep in there. I have been just riding her around the edge, getting her used to the busy traffic running alongside the far edge which is great training for her. But we have now started mixing it up a little and Going all over the field. Last week, I asked her to maintain a trot and turn right, which she hasn't done yet. Today, we did a very easy 3 loop serpentine!!!! She was a perfect pupil and the more you praise her, the more she gives you-typical mare. On the way back to the gate, M was waiting (she can't walk far with her hips) So Amba and I showed her our new party move, and did another serpentine and M was over the moon with her. Another happy event happened on this ride, Amba skipped into a canter!!!. I pulled her up, but I wanted to keep going!!! It won't be long before we do our first planned canter under saddle-just want to get her more balanced first.
She is still not confident with large traffic, noisy pick-up trucks etc. We've had a few moments where she has really needed to be told that everything's ok- kick-on, but she can't quite stop running backwards as a coping mechanism, so work in progress there but it just needs time-which we have.
So I am so impressed with her, and so is M.
Her first walk and trot dressage test has been mentioned as an outing next Spring!
Thanks for reading!
