Follow the rail today

I rode Garbo today after helping a friend catch her horse (more on that later).... I decided before I got on that we would do the Follow the rail pattern as well as transitions and indirect and direct rein turns. I would also make sure that it was me steering 100% of the time. I watched the Level one freestyle pattern follow the rail - it's funny - Linda said things get added to your DVDs while they sit on the shelf and today that was so true. There was Pat doing the indirect rein turn to direct rein turn and leaning back with the other hand and touching the rump - hah!

I also noticed he worked on dropping and picking up the reins without looking as well as butterflys and trombone to bend to a stop (rather than go direct to bend to a stop). I decided to work on that as well and noticed how soft his indirect rein turns were on the rein.

So before I even got to Level 2 freestyle dvd I had seen exactly what I needed and decided to get on with it - well actually first I had to go see my friends horse.. like I said - more on that later.


So after a bit of head down work since Garbo seemed to be a bit on edge and looking next door at the cows alot, I saddled up and got on at the tire after some more mounting (come sideways towards me) practice.

Maraschino looked on and sniffed Garbos saddle. Making notes!

We started with follow the rail - I got some on video - just at walk at this stage. I have no idea what the sqeaking noise is.



We did lots of follow the rail, added in lots of transitions, some back up and I worked on getting my indirect rein and direct rein turns softer. Well I must say Garbo's transitions to trot today were amazing - I just breathed in to bring my life up and he was off.!

He tried to decide to cut a couple of corners but I was persistant and backed him up to where he left the rail (and resisted going back on) and off we would go again but I would go back and forth lots in the 'sticky parts' of the rail.

I was pleasantly surprised how good he was and how prepared he was to do as I asked. At the end I was trotting the rail and turning off in a circle to canter (quite a large turn back to the rail) - I was actually only asking for trot but he offered canter on each turn so I allowed it.

After 25 minutes I turned towards the tyre and we cantered to a stop. I got off and gave him a carrot.

All in all a great ride.