Shoulder In

It is still pretty frigid here. The forecast calls for daytime highs below 15 all week, with lows dipping below zero. Snow planned for Wednesday and the possibility of getting above 20 over the weekend. I really don't mind the weather right now. I stay bundled up in insulated coveralls and always wear gloves when I am outside. My fear is when it gets above freezing and all of this snow starts to melt. Oh, how I hate mud. It gives me the shivers just thinking about the muddy, cold pony legs! Luckily, I have a heated indoor arena to ride in, so my riding really hasn't been effected! I just really make sure that I give Boomer plenty of time to warm up and plenty of time to cool down.

Our ride today was good. Boomer finally graduated from cantering circles to cantering the whole arena! Yay Boomer! At first he wasn't really sure what to do and broke into a trot on the long side. That is a much better problem than we used to have of him wanting to gallop on the long side! I also introduced the idea of shoulder in which, of course, Boomer didn't understand. I used exercise 61 out of 101 Schooling Exercises for Horse and Rider. Pretty much you just do a small circle in the corner and attempt to keep the bend once you leave the circle and go along the rail. I gave it a good solid try in each corner going each direction and may have gotten one or two steps that felt close. I don't think Boomer had any idea what I was asking but he really seemed to think about it and try. I was really proud of him. I think I will try exercise 54 which is leg yields in shoulder in position. Basically I will just ask him to leg yield along the rail while having his forehand angled slightly away from the rail. Luckily, Boomer isn't a horse that depends on the rail. I think he would rather work away from it. Probably has something to do with spending so much time in the cattle pasture last year *grin*!

Wednesday is the big day for the lesson! Wish me luck and hopefully I'll have something interesting to share here on the blog!