The View From Up Here

Well, the weather took a cold turn today from yesterday.  The high temperature today was the 41 degrees at 5:00 am and it just went down from there. The wind was blowing from the north and all of the horses were feeling frisky! Considering all of this, Tex worked very well this morning.

I decided to show some visual examples of what I am looking for when I talk about bend and flexion, and what better way to show it than a front seat view...

These two photos show the contrast of the left turn. I am asking with my left leg and light left rein for Tex to flex slightly to the left so he can make a bend through his body to follow the round pen around counter clockwise. In the first photo he has gotten distracted and is counter flexed and not with me. The second photo is about 4 steps later, he is starting to come left, but not with much feel, he is still pretty stiff.

This is about 1/2 of the circle later, and he is really starting to be soft, his ears and relaxed neck tell the story here. So when we get the right answer, even if it isn't quite perfect we change and do something different.

Like bending right. We haven't go that very well yet. He is willing, but doesn't quite understand the concept. So, we keep working, I persistently ask for the same thing (in this case, right flexion from his jaw, through his neck and back through his body) in the same way. He will get it in time.

 

Then we go back to the first thing that we were working on and get the best bend yet.

Everything flows together and it is a great feeling and a good View From Up Here.