Lilly canters

Today I went out riding with my friend again, but this time I rode Lilly.  (Now that she's got shoes.)  I've only cantered Lilly twice, and on a ride into the state forest, you want to put in a canter or two.  But in the back of my mind, this canter, still sat as an unknown quantity.

So, up the first hill, we trotted.  That is, Lil trotted.  My friend was quite happily half a length behind us, cantering.  Up the next hill, I mustered up all my bravado, and after a few strides of trot I asked for a canter.

Lilly, the ex-racehorse that she is, lept forward, and hearing the cantering horse behind her, bounded along.  I sat back a bit, and she came back to me, and we continued on, up the hill in this lovely lovely fast canter.  It was just ace.

Pony express

Today my girlfriend came over again, and we decided to go and do a ride with some cantering.  She rode Mo, and I rode Dingo.

We rode deep into the state forest, chatting and ambling along.  When time came for a canter, I let my friend go first.  I thought that this would be good for Dingo - it would teach him to sit back and listen.  That it did, and he did some lovely canter work.

However, on the final stretch for home, my friend, having regained trust in her horse, allowed me to go first.  I gave Dingo the reins, and the pony galloped gladly along.  Then half way up the hill he started slowing down.  "Nice", I thought to myself, and then I heard my friend cantering up behind me.  I dug my heels in and the race was on.  All the way to the top of the track.

Dingo arrived first, with my friend calling out "I'll give you a run for your money next week!".

Love it!

Confidence

I have been wanting to write about confidence for a while now, because in riding a horse, confidence is everything. You can be doing the right thing, but if you are not doing it with confidence and conviction, then you will not get the results you want or expect. At the same time, finding a good example of confidence is hard, but I think I've got one.

I brought Lilly in for training, and while brushing her noticed that she has a small cut (about the size of my thumb nail) on her left hock. The hock also looked more swollen than the other hock. It would be a shame not to work her at all, so I decided to start slowly, and just see if the hock was a problem or not.

As a starting point, I lounged Lilly, first at the walk, then at the trot, to check if she is lame. She wasn't. Then I started riding. I rode her the way I normally do, sticking to the same routine, but the back of my mind was still thinking about that hock. Was she really ok? Was she in pain? Was she maybe unable to do some things?

While my mind was wondering, Lilly started playing up. Nothing serious, just a bit of falling out, minor rushing off, bit of getting prancy.

I thought about that hock one more time, and then I decided that if she is well enough to ride, then she is well enough to be ridden with confidence. And so I rode on. With conviction. And all of Lilly's problems vanished.

Lilly goes bush

I've been wanting to take Lilly for a ride in the state forest for a couple of weeks, but the fact that she doesn't have shoes, and I don't have a riding buddy, has held me back.

Well today, my girlfriend came over, and "no shoes" by itself is not a good enough excuse to stay home.  So off we went.

Lilly started prancing down the first hill, but then she settled down.  A couple of times she thought about not going forward any further, but we got through that relatively easily.  Towards the end she was quite obedient and relaxed.  She enjoyed watching the views.