Awesomeness

Yes, it is a word! Well, I'm pretending it's a word :)

Tonight I lunged Greta before I rode her, did some yielding-the-hindquarters exercieses (which she is an expert at now) and relaxed in the saddle. All this = awesomeness. She was in-frame almost the entire time! We even got a squared halt! Still not entirely sure how we managed it, as when we actually tried to get a square halt one of her shoulders dropped or the silly girl landed with her hip cocked to one side. My fault! I didn't lead her up into it right. I felt she was truly in-frame and that her back was up because when I sat a few strides of the trot to either change diagonals or move into a halt, I could sit it very comfortably and flow with it easier: it wasn't a bone-jarring trot!

I focused a lot more on softening my hands, particularly the inside rein when she yielded to rein pressure, and more on using the rate of my posting to slow her down if needed. The only time I could feel her quicken underneath me was when one of the parents was walking along the side of the arena to get some cones for the instructor, for our halting exercise. Greta was probably thinking "People aren't supposed to be there! When were people allowed to be there? I'm gonna look at them!" I moved my inside hip into her and she got back into frame, but her ears were still perked all the way forward, and I could tell she was eyeing the person still! Silly girl!

All of this was rewarded with a good rub down and grazing, especially since they haven't been out for a few days (but they were out all last week and the weekend thank goodness!) because it snowed here! And when the snow melts, what does it turn into? A big watery mess! But by the looks of how sunny it has been, I'm hoping they'll be out by the end of the week or next week. Greta really liked that grass. So much that still showed a little spunk when I pulled her away from it after about thirty minutes. We walked forward and she trotted a little circle in front of me so she could back to that grass!

So what's the moral of the story? The horse is only as good as the rider!

Oh, and we will be going to that Marsh 28 schooling show. It'll be good for Greta, like putting her in the kiddy pool to see if she likes to splash around, or swim, or try and be the next Micheal Phelps. The latter would be nice haha!!! And a surprise tomorrow or Saturday! Be looking for it!