Saturday Night And A Loping Lesson

Since Saturday was my last day of work, I invited some friends over to hang out by the firepit and have a few drinks with me. I really needed to let my hair down for awhile after the last month of work, which was absolutely crazy! I am so glad it is over. Now I can just plan for the future. I had 8 friends and my neighbors here. We had a really good time. It was nice to be able to just let it all go, and enjoy myself.



The dogs were out playing all day with my OH and Pony Girl. They were very tired by the end of the night. Sadie had a bad day today. She relapsed and attacked Bailey twice. She hasn't attacked Bailey twice in one day, ever. One of the attacks happened while I was at work, the other, not too long after I got home. I am starting to wonder if I will ever be able to modify her behavior. We can go a month or more with no incidents, than we have a setback. Since the weather has been so nice, the dogs are outside all day if we are home. I sometimes think this makes it worse. When she is really tired, she gets really grouchy. Since I am not working now, I will have more time to spend with her. Just another thing to add to my list of things to do!

This is Sadie, by the fire. She handled all the excitement of the people here pretty good. She does start to get very anxious, but she actually laid down and behaved herself.



Sunday, Pony Girl came up, we had plans to ride again. I have decided since I will have a lot of time to ride now, that I will also work on loping Brandy. If I longe Brandy, I always have her lope, but I don't always lope her while riding. I want to get her to slow down at the lope and be more comfortable loping, with me on her back. She is still not completely trained at the lope. I still have a hard time getting her to take the correct lead and she crossfires a lot. She also crow hops when she slips, or is uncomfortable.

I had already worked on jogging, she was really good today. She was very consistent at the jog and stayed on the rail. It was very muggy out, I think with the heat, she just didn't have much energy.



Here we are loping. I have to let her have her head, or she feels too restrained. I do keep light contact on her mouth. She would speed up and I would check her, than she would slow back down. I wasn't using the whole arena, I usually just use one end, once we get a few weeks of consistent loping in, than I will use the whole thing. I noticed the grass in this corner is getting very tall, something else to add to my OH's list of things to do!



I noticed I was leaning forward here. I don't usually do that. I did notice while I was riding her and corrected my posture. My trainer prefers leaning back slightly. If she saw this, she would be wondering if I forgot everything she taught me!



I look like I am leaning to the side here, but I think it is the picture. Brandy has a tendency to lean while loping, but not as bad as Fritzy. Something else I need to work on. I am also looking down here, when I should be looking up. This is why I love looking at pictures of me riding, I can critique myself and correct my mistakes.



There's that face again! Always watching!



Can you believe Brandy didn't crow hop today? Not even one time, she even stumbled while loping, and she didn't react to it, like she usually does! Good Brandy! I LOVE my horse!

After cooling out, I always let my horses graze. There isn't any grass in their pasture, and we sure aren't lacking any outside the pastures!



I believe Brandy was very content, what horse wouldn't be with all this lush grass around?



I will leave you with a video clip of our very successful loping lesson!