Tune Up

It's been a year since my trainer rode Cupid, so I thought it would be helpful for our continued progress to have her get on him so she can help me ride him better. She is a lovely quiet rider, as much as I was trying to observe I didn't see her doing much.  It certainly didn't look like she had to take a strong hold, just remain steady and consistent.  She also commented that Cupid was more forward then she expected, though he does tend to be in the outdoor.  But she said the he tried to break from the canter, and recommended we canter longer sets to increase his fitness as well as earlier in the ride to help loosen him up.

He was still suspicious of the chair and blocks and things around the arena - though she did a good job keeping him straight.  He got a little tense midway through the ride, she recommended just staying consistent (don't let him change my position or posting) and lots of circles until he relaxes.  Watch his ears until they return to you.  I mentioned maybe trying some fleece padding on his bridle, mild blinkers, to see if that helps him focus.  Of course he'll need to be able to focus at a show without it, but I'm curious to see if it helps.

In addition to being a much better rider, she is also much taller then me!

I forget what we worked on in my own lesson, but I remember being really pleased afterwards.  At that point I was still optimistic I would be moved up from the waitlist of a show this weekend, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way.  But we have a fun back up plan of going to our local horse park instead.  We're going to play it by ear how much we'll do once we're there, but we did a few jumps today just in case!  We did a little course with 2'6" verticals, which is the upper end of what we've jumped lately.  We did a semi-skinny, and a one stride combo and Cupid was super!  Hopefully we are both relaxed at the horse park and can do a little more jumping there!

Semi-skinny, with blocks underneath

One stride combo