Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Happy Grazing Horse Photos, and More Lead Changes

It was a beautiful morning, and I was at the barn early so decided to walk out and take some photos before riding Dawn.  First I walked out to where the boys were grazing - that's Pie on the left and Red in the center:


Pie on the left, Red on the right:


I love taking pictures of horse butts - Red closest to the camera and Pie behind him:



Red, busily eating grass:


Red, interested in what I was doing but eating is important too:


Pie, standing on a slight uphill slope:


Sweet Pie face:


Another horse butt - this time Dawn's:



Dawn is curious but still chewing:


Dawn - I worry about those too-long hind pasterns but so far (knock on wood and anything else available) they haven't given us any trouble:


Love the expression of concentration and the wrinkled muzzle:


Dawn and I had a really lovely ride today.  We rode in the outdoor arena and in the mares' pasture.  Lots of really nice, relaxed, trot and canter work.  And more lead changes - if I even let the thought/feel picture of a lead change cross my mind - bam! lead change.  Just for fun, and as an experiment, I tried doing two lead changes in a row after two canter strides - bam! two strides, bam! - in both directions on the straight side of the arena.  All these changes were done using "deep feel" I described in this earlier post: "think the way the horse itself would feel on one lead and then switch mentally to the feel the horse itself would have on the other". She seemed to be having fun with it, and I was doing a lot of laughing with delight.  The third time I asked for two lead changes in a row, she did the first one and then struggled for a stride with the second and then did a big buck instead - I think she was telling me that she was too strung out to do the change properly and that I should please wait to ask when she was in a position to do it properly - I laughed and told her that her correction of my improper technique was duly noted.  We took a break, and did some nice trotting and cantering around in the pasture - with one more lead change just for fun!

Beautiful day, beautiful horses - what more could I ask for?

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