ground poles galore

Our latest ride was much like the one before - working on focusing Isabel's brain and energy on her feet. The footing was a little better so I felt ok upping the complexity a bit. 

In our last ride, Isabel wanted to rush through the trot poles (in yellow below). So I kept this the same. She was owning the 3 canter poles tho, so I raised the center pole to about 21" (the MS Paint blue lines in below pic). And, since the footing was much improved, I added in the blue and white X at the end of the arena. 

yellow trot poles, bright blue raised cavaletti with canter poles, and blue and white X in foreground

We essentially built off of yesterday's ride. Trot through the trot poles, halt, rein back. Reverse and repeat. Coming off the left, this led really nicely to the blue and white X. Halt, rein back, reverse, repeat to the right: X to trot poles (with halt in between). Isabel did much better through the trot poles this ride, so maybe next time we can try raising alternating sides?

kinda meh

Then we added in the canter poles, and Isabel still did pretty well here. With the raised center pole, she wanted to rush a bit, so we didn't hit every single distance - especially from the left lead, which had a much shorter approach. 

 um, no

Plus if she was a little exuberant, that third pole came up mighty fast. So it was a really great exercise for paying attention to her feet. And she more or less figured it out.

that's more like it

The right lead was pretty solid, aided in part by a nice long approach. After doing these three elements individually (trot poles, single X, and canter poles), we started mixing and matching - and only halting straight if Isabel started rushing. It was kind of an awkward course for stringing much together, but it was good for forcing focus and attention. 

 

awww yess

Isabel got her tootsies did after our ride. I had planned to add snow pads, but after talking about it with the farrier we decided to wait until next time. With recent weather, mud is more of a concern than snow. Of course, now that we've opted for this route we'll probably get a massive snow storm in the next two weeks lol... Oh well. 

After getting her toes trimmed and shoes tapped back on, Isabel went for another spin with her owner's niece who's in town from Canada. She apparently does the jumpers and had a grand ol' time playing around with Isabel. 

And finally, when it was all said and done (long day for princess!) - Isabel got to dig into some of the treats Santa left in her stocking :)