12-19-2010; playing under saddle

I used the indoor today and started by asking her to rear a bit and play around. It made SUCH a difference! She connected right up and was playing with me, leaping back and forth, in connection, whereas before she would just leave. By getting her feet freed up, she is playing with a lot of passage as well.

I love Caspian's intense look here.

I decided to saddle her (first time in a long time!) and see if she could continue to play under saddle. I rewarded when she would play a bit or get excited. She gave a few little pop ups and also some super fast turns as she began to explore what it felt like to feel free when being ridden!

I am continuing to try to release her into the canter as she is definitely stuck there. The first several times she just jumped around, but I didn’t reprimand that at all and sometimes even rewarded it, as I know that that comes more from her being stuck than anything. At the end, though, she hopped into this nice, controlled canter for a few steps! I was thrilled and got off right away.