Try It In The Big Pen

Sunday

Sarah grazing with Kirsten.

Shootim

It was another great day.  After a bit of turnout while we cleaned stalls, I tried some of the collection work on Shootim.  Things went ok yesterday in the round pen, so today we tried it in the large pen.  First a little lunging, Shootim had a little motor on him.  Then briefly we did some close lunging drills.  Up in the saddle I repeated the drills, after which we were ready for work on collection.  I tried to remember to keep contact with seat and legs, driving him into the bit. We started at the trot.  It was nice and low key.  I thought that we were communicating nicely.  On to the canter!  To the left, we tried the same thing, driving him more and more into the bit until he collects up.  Not only did he collect nicely, but as I let him out, he maintained his pace for half a rail!  Happy with his progress, I stopped there and patted him.

Cantering to the right did not go nearly as well.  Shootim was quite a bit more resistant.  I'll have to work more with him on his right side; I'll give it some thought.  After that, I gave him a few more things to do so we could stop with some successes.  It was a nice time.