Even though she will be nine this year and was going well when I turned her out right before I moved to Kentucky, she is learning a new discipline, which brings up a few new challenges.
She's learning how to accept a contact (rather than the looser western type of riding), something that has confused her. In her mind, tighter contact on the reins means stopping, turning, or rating so I've had to talk her off the ledge every time the contact is added. At first, she decided the contact was a good way to attempt to brace on the bit but a small bit change has convinced her otherwise.
It's amazing to see the change in her in just a few months. While there are still some issues that we are working on, for the most part she has figured out what is being asked of her. Don't get me wrong, we still have a long way to go before I'll venture towards hinting that she's an english horse but it seems like she's really stepped up to the challenge.
The next step is to move on to figuring out what direction I should take her in once she's more settled into her new discipline. She seems to be enjoying trotting over poles so jumping may be in her future but trotting over poles is a lot different than jumping them.
Since the weather has spent a lot of time looking like this lately, right now we are just enjoying actually getting to work through a winter without having to deal with riding in the mud.
Hopefully the next time I have a Vegas update for everyone, it will be a little bit warmer. At the moment, the real feel temperature (according to Accuweather) is -2 degrees so riding has come to a halt for the moment. Thankfully it looks like it will be warmer on Friday and Saturday so we can get back work on Vegas' career change.
Until next time,
Mel
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