Action plan

So I do sometimes ride my horse.  We had a light ride Monday and he was very good, and we also had a flat lesson tonight.

Still no horse pictures, so here is a cheetah!

After doing some rides on him while I traveled, trainer R agrees we need to sharpen him up off the leg which is a true story.  So we focused on that and did some canter figure 8s overpoles.  Fawkes prefers to change after the pole instead of over the pole, which, ok.  His changes were clean and easy, nothing to complain about there.  

I had a small epiphany about outside rein and shoulder control.  I mean, I already knew the outside rein controls the outside shoulder but I was processing that I need to not lose outside rein contact when turning to prevent him blowing out that way.  So I am paying closer attention there and while we still aren't fully straight coming off the rail to go to poles, it is improving.  I think he is bored with not doing so much jumping lately because he was practically dragging me to the poles and then jumping them.  I love the feeling of a horse locking on and taking you to the jump.

And a panda :)

Which leads to our overall action plan.  Starting in October - to make sure his back is fully healed - Fawkes is going into trainer boot camp.  He is going to get at least two trainer rides a week to hopefully give him his own confidence over fences so I can stop feeling the pressure to make no mistakes.  Let's face it, I am not ever going to be a perfect rider so he needs to know that if I mess up, he is still fine.  I think the trainers can make that happen . Hopefully it improves our relationship and helps us learn to trust each other.  If not, well, that is valuable information too.  I am pretty excited to get started on that, but it makes sense to not start until his back is 100%.

The Ecogold pad has arrived and tonight was my first ride in it.  It is definitely going to require a longer girth so that is a good excuse to shop.  Fawkes felt great and I suppose that could be the pad, but we will need more data points to be sure.  I am a little concerned it is making his saddle tight, but I feel like I am always paranoid about that so I will just keep an eye on it and let the trainers verify it is ok.

Here is to planning and hopefully success!