Sussan Evans of EvanLew Lodge (my Coach) and I have been working at re-educating Smokey. Poor Smokey has quite a few issues. So we have started from scratch and have been slowly developing his understanding. We have been using the training methods recommended by Andrew McLean, and he is making good progress. Smokey and I had a training session this morning and he was a very good boy.
Sarah would be one of our most enthusiastic riders. She rides Driza and loves him to bits!! It's school holidays but Sarah was very keen to have her weekly lesson. Sarah has ridden hundreds of twenty metre circles, transitions from walk to trot and trot to walk. She will be cantering very soon.
Mel and Dom came for their third lesson and had a good time. Mel was very keen to trot again and she did a great job. Dom was very enthusiast and groomed Lily very well and then rode on his own in the round yard.
We went out into the exercise paddock and both riders rode the bending poles and then had a go at the mug race, great fun. The horses were spoiled again with more licorice. Mel and Dom came for their second lesson this morning. They had a lesson on Monday where they learned how to lead their horses and how to groom. In the first lesson they did some basic transitions and learned about how to give correct signals to their horse for walk and halt.
This morning they came full of enthusiasm keen to use their newly learned skills. Once groomed and ready Mel was able to mount Grace on her own, Dom had a little help mounting Lily. They rode lots of transitions and rode circles around the cones and barrels. At the end of the lesson Mel had a little trot, pretty good for her second lesson. Big smiles all around!!!! :) Dom has really grown in confidence from being quite nervous to being very sure of himself. Last lesson Maddy groomed Lily and checked her hooves and then decided to have a sit on Grace. After a tentative start she relaxed and enjoyed the experience. She even got a big hug from her brother. This week she did the usual grooming with Lily, and made a great job of it, then ventured on to sitting on Grace again. Now for the big news, she felt so confident that we had a walk around the round yard. Then she took control and rode on her own, going around the barrels, transitioning from walk to halt and back to walk. We were all so proud, well done Maddy.
Ryan then took over and warmed up in the round yard and then progressed on to the dressage arena. He completed a few twenty metre circles, transitions etc and then did his first real dressage test. What a great afternoon. I still have a smile on my face four hours later. I'm looking forward to next lesson. |
AuthorSandalwood is a property 11km East of Roma Queensland. Archives
October 2018
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