Training : Transitions

One of the compromises I had to make for the move to this new barn was that I'd be losing my wonderful dressage trainer.

I'll be picking up some lessons with a hunter/jumper trainer at the barn, but I'm hoping I can find a good dressage trainer who will be willing to come by.  I'd gladly trailer out but that had to be cut out too since the board is pricier at the new place.

So it's even more important now that I keep up with my training and logging it to track any progress or lack of..or worst case scenario, we digress!

Tonight I decided to give Max a real workout. He's had about two weeks off of vigorous ring work and it was about time.

My drive to the barn only took half an hour..woot! When I got there, I was amazed to find the place bustling. Lights on in all three barns, the indoor full of riders..about nine total! What a change from the quiet nights riding alone at our old barn.

I started Max long and low at a stretchy walk. After a few rounds of that I stretched him out at the trot, then it was time for work! We started out with circle transitions. It was basically trot half a circle, walk three steps..and only three steps, then back to trot till the next half circle. Then we did the same thing with canter, trot three steps, back to canter.

Max did better going left, as suspected. He has always been weaker going right so our next session will have to focus on that.

After that we did some forward canters around the whole arena. He has a tendency to dip his head down, so I tried holding his head higher and that resulted in a more uphill feeling. I'm not sure if we were truly uphill but he was trying hard so I took it.

We then took a break and went over some cross rails. There was a slightly bigger one that took him off guard and he did his rainbow jump over and knocked me out of my tack! Luckily I stayed on and we circled and I allowed him more freedom in his movement to move forward instead of up.

Then we did leg yield along the long side at trot, canter short side, then back to leg yield at trot. Boy did this one make him huff and puff. Good!

We ended the ride with some walk to canter transitions on a 10 m circle, spiraling out to 15, then back to walk at a 10.

He was such a champ and worked hard tonight. We had a new friend there too to chat to during breaks and cool down.

This new place is going to put a dent in my savings/retirement fund...but so far I think it's well worth it!