Ride 1.

This ride actually happened yesterday, but after an 11 hour manic day at the farm blogging was kind of the last thing that I was interested in doing.

It wasn't a first ride in the sense that I had never been on Breezy, but a first ride in the sense that I could take all the time I wanted to sort through things. Generally when I ride for one of the kids I'm on to fix a specific issue that's popped up, so my focus is on whatever that is.

I focused yesterday on the known big issue, which is that she has a tendency to be weak in her right hind and therefore heavy and crooked, particularly in the canter. I have a feeling that if I can get her straight and even, the minor issues will more than likely sort themselves out from there. We did a little bit of baby lateral work at the walk and trot in addition to the normal routin, and then large canter circles. My intention was to change bend on the circle, but ended up primarily using a counter-bend to just simply keep her straight when going to the right. The difference between right and left with her is pretty significant. 

She was less evil than anticipated about it all, which was nice. A lot of the time when I ride her it ends up a variation of WWIII. I'm hoping that if I walk a firm line with her as far as what I expect (without expecting more than is reasonable on any given day), she'll realize life is just easier working at that level!

I used the plain D-ring that was on the bridle already since I couldn't find either of the ones that we've been using (for the record, I don't look for bits in brush boxes.) I think I probably will stick with that for a while since I have no plans to do more than flatwork, and then use the others accordingly.

If it doesn't rain all day, the plan is to ride again tomorrow before lessons. I'm going to try and get a good bit done early this week since I'll be gone for the holiday weekend.