Puttering About

So it seems my motivation is waning. There is a little turmoil in my life and so my time with Cricket is just about enjoying her and allowing our sessions to unfold as they will.

Coming out of our little freeze, yesterday's weather was positively fantastic. When I left work at 4:30 it was still 49 degrees.

Cricket and I played on the 12' line - circles, driving, stick to me, sideways, etc. Her sideways from Z1 was the best it's ever been. No forward drift to my left and only minimal drift going the other way. Her posture and flexion during circle and sideways confirms to me that she needs to see the chiropractor. I'm going to wait until I get her shoes back on before scheduling Dr. Jim.

I decided to put a bareback pad on her tonight. I wanted to work on more trot transitions and felt a little security would help me help her. We played with transitions on the rail as well as some question box circles. I became a little unbalanced coming back to the box at the trot. Cricket remembers this pattern from our canter work and her question was "Can we canter?" My answer was a resounding, "NO, not yet." I've just gotten comfortable with cantering under saddle and trotting bareback. I just don't think we're ready to plummet off that cliff, er I mean take that step.

I finished with some isolation yields. I'm working on our communication with leg=yield rather than go. She's getting better and better and we effected some nice yields with just body and no rein. Then we put it together and played a little with sideways, off the fence, no rein. I asked her to move from marker to marker and gave her a cookie at each end point. I think we need to work our isolations in a saddle to make sure I stay secure and balanced. Still, it was good fun.

Nothing that phenomenal but another good day with my precious girl.