Red the therapy horse!

The summer days are waning.  We are taking advantage of as many nice days as possible by riding outside.  Today, Red and I took along Alison and Aron to our little arena of paradise.  The pond that is near the outdoor arena is now home to a pair of mallards, and my favorite- the Blue Heron. Fall is definately here! Circling above us were the hawks, along with the coyotes, maybe they will keep the mice down this winter.

Aron retained his memories of our fun rides in the arena from last week and treated Alison to his happy relaxed self.  I told her as we walked out to just relax, walk on a loose rein and if he looks to pat him on the neck, let him look but keep walking.  The only thing he doesn't really like are the big red ant piles (who can blame him!). He stayed close to Red the entire time (keeping the dust up- cough, cough).  So I decided to let her enjoy herself in the arena and we worked on our interval training in the field.

Here I am last week riding Aron:

Borrowing from my lesson from Wednesday, I was reminded by Sue that even if we are doing interval training in the field he must still transition nicely....no dropping the back and freight training on the reins.  Use the shoulder in to keep him coming up in the shoulders and lifting his back.  It made for amazing forward transitions! All we did was canter/trot and trot/canter transitions on 20m. circles and figure eights. At the walk, I made sure to keep him through! Fantastic!

While we were riding, it became a bit of a party.  The B.O. came up, my friend Eddie walked up, as well as another boarder along with all the corgis!.  Eddie is recoving from very significant surgeries, including double hip replacement.  He hasn't ridden in 2 years.  He's been coming up to the barn to visit his horse, to walk in the field and get his exercise.  Watching everyone, he must have gotten antsy to ride.  He asked me if Red was tired enough that he could ride him at the walk.  I said sure! -knowing that Red would be on his best behavior outside.

He let Eddie get on, made no faces and just gave him a beautiful medium walk, staying down and round stepping through over his back with beautiful 4 beats and big strides with his back legs.  Eddie is very tight in his hips since his surgery and due to not having ridden in so long, so everytime he would tighten his knees or thighs Red's head would creep up.  If Eddie leaned forward, Red would start his lazy half trot half jigg.  I just told Eddie to relax, lift his rib cage and drape his leg....aahhhh, back to pretty walk.  Eddie was getting tired, so I told him to drop his stirrups and I would lead them at the walk...Red was so good. when Eddie relaxed so would my very best Redhead.  Eddie was so pleased, getting to get back on a horse again, and enjoying Red's smooth walk.  Can you imagine not riding for 2 years!?! :( I can't.