Conditioning, Ground Poles, and Heat

View from the top. :)

After Monday's blow up, I thought it best to give G a positive ride before attempting anything remotely resembling a jump. I saddled her up Wednesday evening and set off for a nice, long conditioning ride. The equestrian center has a huge hayfield where I frequently school a couple of cross-country jumps, but it's currently waist-high. It's also full of holes. Not the best combination. We settled for a large, flat grassy area behind one of the barns and had a lovely ride. G felt strong and energetic and eager to work. We did a five-minute walking warm up, staying nice and loose before moving to seven minutes of trotting. We took a two minute walk break and then picked.up a canter for seven minutes.

This is where I must briefly digress into a discussion on G's awesomeness. Most horses I've competed on are total psychos when it comes to cantering around in a grassy area with a rider in two point. Darling Moe (my TB gelding), for example, gets more and more excited and as a result, gets faster and faster until he's having flashbacks of the track. G, on the other hand, picks a nice forward pace and sticks with it. I can settle into two point, give her a loose rein, and enjoy a nice ride. It's pretty deluxe.

We cooled out after our canter work because the heat index was in the 100s. G had a nice hose down and a good roll. She cooled out nicely, so it seems she's getting in better shape. Hooray!

I got up at the crack of dawn Thursday to ride before the sun heated things up too much. Anne met me at 7:30, and after a beautiful warmup, we got going on some trot poles. G walked over them in a very relaxed way, but fell apart at the trot. She was anxious and unhappy, but went over them a few times. She finally relaxed a little bit by the fifth or sixth time trotting. I'm taking this as a good sign. We still have a long way to go, though.

G's had the weekend off since it's been wretchedly hot. I'll drag myself out of bed early a few times this week to beat the heat for sure; oh, summer. How I hate you.

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