Canter work

I have been having so much fun over the past couple of days and I simply have to tell you about it!

It started yesterday. My mom came out like she always does and she saddled me up and brought me out to the Flat Arena. We warmed up like we always do, by walking around the arena first one direction and then the other. My mom always starts out walking me on a pretty loose rein but by the end of my warm-up, she's gathered them up more. They're not tight at all but she has more contact - that's what she calls it when I can feel every move her hands are making and she can feel my mouth. Contact is something you have to get used to when you're a horse. When I first came to live with my mom, I didn't know anything about it and instead of just traveling lightly alone, I'd hang on the bit. That means I was sort of pulling against it. My mom says it's a common thing in former racehorses because when we run, our riders have a firm hold of us. In fact for racehorses, a tighter rein means to go faster.

My mom taught me not to hang on the bit by just letting the reins go loose. My head would drop nearly to the ground but I couldn't find any tightness to pull against. It made me feel kind of funny but I eventually got used to it and began picking my head up. Then my mom gently gathered up the reins and started feeling for a little contact. It was confusing to me at first. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stop or go. One thing that helped was when she lunged me in side reins. She kept them very loose, and since they're stretchy, they didn't make me feel like my head was trapped, but they taught me that I could still move forward even when their was some contact on my mouth.

What's harder to learn though is how to Come On The Bit. I'm still just learning how to do that and it's hard work. It means that instead of just moseying along with your front legs out in front and your back legs sort of following, you really step under yourself with your back legs and use them to push your front part forward. In the process, you sort of push right into the bit and your mom can just touch your reins and you can feel what she wants. It takes a lot of muscle and coordination to learn how to move like that but I'm beginning to get the idea. Sometimes, I find myself pushing forward and reaching for that bit, especially when I'm trotting.

Well, yesterday after our warm-up, I figured we'd do more trot work and figure 8's and stuff because we've been doing a lot of work on that. But instead, my mom asked me to trot and when we reached the long side of the arena, she gave me the cue to canter! I was so happy. I love to canter. It's fun because it's sort of like galloping only more controlled and slower. I broke right into a nice canter and happily went down that whole side. When we reached the turn part, I got ready to slow down to a trot but my mom kept pushing me and I cantered most of the way around it until I just couldn't keep it up. It's hard to canter around a corner when you're carrying a rider. It takes a lot of balance and muscle and I'm not used to it. My mom was very happy with me though and I felt pretty good too.

I thought that was probably all we'd do but I was wrong. She kept asking for a canter and every time she encouraged me to keep going around the turn and to go as long as I could. It was so fun! I got a little excited at one point but she just tweaked my outside rein to steady me and as soon as I was going at a normal pace, she asked me again for that canter. After a while, we changed direction and worked on cantering the other way. That was even harder - I always do better when I'm going to the left for some reason but I kept trying and eventually I managed to canter reasonably well that way.

Finally I was beginning to get tired and my mom knew it. We hadn't been working for that long - not as long as we usually do on trotting - but since I'm not used to it, I was pretty worn out. We went for a nice Poop Loop then and that cooled me down and relaxed me nicely. I was pretty proud of myself and I knew my mom was pleased. Today we did some more canter work and it was even more fun because Sparky and his mom were in the arena with us. Spark and I trotted together and that was lots of fun. Then I cantered and Spark got to see how good I did it. He was proud of me too and sniffed my nose and rubbed his head on me to let me know. It was nice.

One time I even managed to canter all down one long side and all the way around the turn and partway up the other side. That was really fun. And when we finished, I got to go on a Poop Loop with Sparky and that was nice. So it's been an exciting and fun couple of days.