field trip!

Yesterday I wrote that we managed to finally ride!! Yay!! And observant readers may have noticed that we were in a different indoor! One of my 2015 Q1 goals was to explore alternative arenas for schooling while our facilities at home are unusable. 

So B and I brought the horses over to the hunter barn ST for a little schooling session. The facilities at ST are really VERY nice - and the footing is all kinds of technical with these cushy little fibers mixed in. The indoor isn't huge - but after riding in OF's 20x40m indoor for the past few weeks if felt downright luxurious lol. 

 she located the feed room immediately haha

This barn's arena fee is a little higher than some other nearby farms, so we will probably check those out too... but it was nice to get out and get some fresh exposure for the ponies. 

Wick wants to know where we've taken him this time 

Isabel was predictably a rock star - behaving herself well while getting tacked at the trailer, even with the wind blowing like crazy. The conditions actually reminded me a bit of the super windy hunter trials we did last november - and my philosophy re: weather is that 'if you'd show in it you should school in it too', so it was definitely good practice. 

Isabel settled in to the new arena pretty well - nothing was particularly offensive, tho the fake boulders piled up in one corner earned some strange looks lol.

the outdoor arena looks downright idyllic right now...

We were testing out the Bates too - and Isabel seemed to go very well in it. I think she definitely appreciates a saddle that isn't constantly moving around on her back (shocking, I know) and she flatted very nicely. Not perfect, but surprisingly good (in both directions!) given her lackluster performance over the weekend. 

I kept it pretty simple - lots and lots of trotting and circles. And she actually had some very nice moments during our right lead canter - making me think our last lesson was just a blip rather than a full on regression. Honestly, I don't think she really likes the indoor at OF. It's small-ish and there's always so much going on in there. Oh well princess - winter sucks... 

getting ready to jumpy jump

There was an interesting course set up in the arena - kind of forming a circle in the center. I decided to give one of the lines a whirl - two skinny green boxes along the diagonal. We trotted the second element first just to make sure Izzy was cool with the astro turf (she was cool with it). Then we trotted in to the line and got a forward four strides. So cantering in gave us a forward three - except when we got a tighter distance and balanced for four instead...

quick video of last time through for saddle fit assessment

Izzy was spot on and just felt fantastic. She moved up to the fences really well and did a great job finding good distances. She's also been landing on all her leads lately, which I definitely appreciate! I think that's actually a function of riding in the small indoor - she knows that turn is coming up fast and takes care of the leads over the fence. Whereas in the outdoor we've got all the space in the world and leads matter less (in her mind anyway). 

I think the distance/pace thing might be improved due to all the many gymnastics we've worked on in lessons. In fact, even the exercises I set up at home (when we could still ride there...) included lots of placing poles and focus on footwork. So lately we're jumping right out of stride more often than not, and even our more questionable distances are pretty ok. I like it!!! (tho we'll see if it lasts when the jumps go up...)

Anyways, it was definitely a fun and productive outing and the horses were very well behaved. Part of me dislikes the idea of paying an arena fee every time we want to school... but mostly I just want to ride my horse. So hopefully this will become a common occurrence!