Attitude can make all the difference...

Lola, like all people and horses, has her good days and her bad days. Her responsiveness and willingness varies depending on her surroundings too. She's young and green so she naturally gets distracted easily. People, horses, dogs, cats, rocks, dirt... well rocks and dirt only when the fly out from under her feet and hit a wall. Oh, add to that walls, doors, gates, and the wind, while we're at it. The thing is on her good days she rides like a broke horse! So I sometimes have to take a moment to remember that she still has a long way to go, and a windy day getting her riled up is part of the process.

Today was a good day, a fantastic day. Last Thursday when the weather had that "about to storm" feel to it, she was all over the place. I think the contrast is what gets me the most. A few weeks back we worked out side in the pasture with the craziest wind. Here's a picture to prove the point:
Lola is never really naughty, because she doesn't really know about that. She is definitly "expressive" though. She occasionally bucks on the lunge when she has a little too much pent up excitement. The windy days was one of those days. Some bucks, some striking out with her inside front leg while trotting or cantering, and lots of looking straight at me and shaking her head (note the expression in the picture) but then she just continues on with what she was doing. Those days, though, are never very productive days to move on. We usually do simple things, because she's just not that focused.

Then we have days like today. She started out quiet on the lunge, she picked up the canter quietly at just a kiss, and she was nice and relaxed with her neck stretching down to maintain contact on her side reins. So when we got on she was actually able to make some progress on things! She really got the hang of stretching her nose to the ground at the trot. She was nice and relaxed and really swiging through her body. Fantastic. So we tried a little canter on a 20 meter circle. We started on the left since that's her stronger lead. She was great! She was even listening enough to come back down to a walk nice and relaxed. We've done some canter work in the pasture, mainly straight lines or huge circles. Earlier this week we cantered inside the indoor for the first time so she got over being convinced she couldn't do it! But I was so pleased that we pretty much just stopped and I hopped off to give her pats and hugs. So cantering on a 20 meter circle was a big accomplishment today.

She's not perfect, but its a start and she's so willing. Of course the camera was out of bateries today, so I couldn't get a picture to balance out the windy mane shake day.

So I took her to her first show last week (her REAL first show) and I never blogged about it! So no fear, the show recap will come. I'm waiting to get pictures from my parents. Hope to blog tonight!