Lucy Canters & Jimmy's Happy To Be Back

Jimmy is the most wonderful horse in the world, have I told you that before?! Because it's true....and here's why:

Lucy had a great lesson yesterday & after 25 minutes of strong walking & trotting she learned to canter. I don't want her just cantering around yet, so I kept her on the lunge line and taught her how to ask for the canter and got her used to asking and the feeling of Jimmy leading into the canter. Jimmy has a big movement when he goes into the canter and I think that's where a lot of kids go wrong in their early riding - they don't learn how to sit canter transitions. The most Lucy cantered was a few strides, we just practiced upwards and downwards transitions & got her used to asking for both and feeling how he moves. Most importantly, we worked on keeping her HEELS DOWN and BUTT IN THE SADDLE!!! Lots of two point trots and sitting trots are in her future ;-) Here is a video of her & Jimmy yesterday:

Lucy rides weaker to the right than the left and this makes Jimmy cut corners. He definitely utilizes his "I'm a school horse, I do what I want" card. I'm not sure if that is what made me more aware of working to the right today, or what...but he REALLY needed an adjustment. I let him have a bit of a lax week & I paid for it today. He DID NOT want to go into the corners to the right whatsoever. He swished his tail & pinned his ears in defiance when I asked.

Once we were over the "You will go into the corners and you will like it" period of the hack, we got into the "canter perfectly straight" exercise I love to do. I have ground rails set on the quarter lines and he has to canter even-paced to, over, and away from the rail. This helps when he jumps because due to his small stature, it's very easy for him to wiggle his way around the arena. In the jumpers every extra stride counts and every stride he wiggles he's missing the time. He must go straight, between my legs, with as long of a stride as he possibly can, the SECOND I ask him to. I'm not always Nice Cop ;-)

He was beautiful for the straight exercise and I could tell he was getting a little amped and wanted to "GO", so I let him. We galloped and did a few roll back turns, some lead changes, and just had fun. I made up a "jump off" as I went. Pole, turn, lead change, gallop, pole, gallop, straight, rollback....you get the drift. He was really having fun!! Ears forward, happy lead changes & overall back to my happy, happy Jumper Jimmy Choo. I think it's so cool that he loves being a jumper for me, and yesterday he was teaching a 13 year old girl how to canter. It just confirms what I've already said: He's officially the most wonderful horse in the world. There's no way around it, I'm biased and I just love the heck out of him!!!