Day 6 Level 4+ Riding skills.

We started with theory - Supple Rein. I've seen Linda's video of this and tried it on Maraschino at home but not enough for it to be concrete. After today's theory session and then riding it for close to an hour, I really get it now. Totally!

It helps the horse become supple laterally.

Notes to remember;
A lazy figure eight pattern
Don't change diagonal on the change of direction.
A little flexion on a big pattern and bigger flexion in a smaller pattern.
Your hand is on the line with one rein.
Engage elbow
If rein touches neck - lift up not across, use elbow
Keep hand down unless you need to correct
Keep hand in line with hip not belly button
Horses job to take neck away from rein
Hold it and let the horse give to himself.

We're working towards moving through the stages of responses from
1. Fight, flight, ignore
2. And discomfort
3. Seeking comfort
4. Try as a partner

Reward mental effort.

My big takeaway for the day however was to keep my outside leg back on turns. My seat bone had been digging into my saddle on turns and it fixed it!!!!
Makes turns so much more pleasurable. !!







Then we did leg yield. I got confused about the direction of flexion compared to the direction were travelling until Ryan explained that we are yielding the horse from our left leg (going right) on left yield. Makes perfect sense now.



Then we went to Linda's barn. She was supposed to be doing a demo for us but suddenly needed to be elsewhere for the new savvy club launch. So she came out to say hi and Ryan did a demo with Zen and with Highland online. Both were awesome. It was cool to see Linda's arena after watching many videos filmed there!

Remmer even came to say hi.

Location:Parelli Ranch Colorado.