Photo by Margaret Chant and edited by Jessica Metropulos

Monday, August 3, 2009

Cricket Update

Hey All,

Just some pix of Cricket from the other day, I wanted to show off how chubby and wonderful she's gotten :) We've been playing with solidifying our L2 ground stuff, as well as preparation for under-saddle. She's proved to be a horse that transfers every detail from ground to saddle, and so the catch is, I have to be careful about what I reward--for example, I used to just reward her circling because she had a huge mental block about it, and since I've realized that helping her find rhythm and relaxation is much more important than the actual circles (hence why I'm playing on about 6 feet of the 22 line at some points in these photos), because otherwise she gets very bracy undersaddle.


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Building up on relaxation

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this is how it transfers--more like 18 feet of line here, and much more soft and relaxed.

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Stretchy circles are becoming a more commonly seen thing, which is super cool--fluid rein from the ground :)

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So darn cute :)

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Isolate, separate, and recombine--zone 1 porcupine games to eventually lead to less brace both online and undersaddle.

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We really love this girl, she's proven to be such a wonderful student :)

6 comments:

Carissa said...

WOW!! She's lookin's so good fran!

Unknown said...

She's so beautiful! Good for you guys, Fran! : ) I'm so proud of you.

ps I got shelbs to counter canter both ways yesterday! I never have before, lol.

love you!

Anonymous said...

She looks beautiful Fran!

Hannah Willis said...

She is amazingly Beautiful!! I wish I could buy her!!!

Virginia said...

she looks great! With a little more fat her topline will be all rounded and nice. Thanks for the update!! I missed her!

Lucy said...

She's looking great, Fran! :)