Swimming and riding

We took the dogs for a swim yesterday and they had a blast. Scout fetched a few times with Murphy but since Murphy is the ultimate swimmer she soon realized she had no chance at retrieving the ball first and soon lost interest in the game. Unfortunately Scout isn't the best listener and completely ignored us when off the leash, so after two chances and wondering if we were going to have to chase her through the hills to catch her, she had to stay on the leash. We are beginning to wonder if she is deaf because when we call her there is NO response. She doesn't even turn her head! She just continues on sniffing and she wanders farther away. We definitely need to work on training her.Murphy waiting for me to throw the ball... It was a beautiful clear day.

We ran across a few trail riders on the way.

I was so happy to get to ride four days in a row in the daylight this weekend! Mazzy has been coming along great. I trotted four poles in a row with her today. Not the most exciting thing, but it was a new thing for her. She was balanced and fluid and completely unfazed. I'm so glad I still have Kylie to ride because a three year old surely is physically and mentally exhausting. This is an example of two seconds of my communication while riding her: keep trotting, yup keep trotting, no don't swing your haunches out - stay straight, over here, over here, good girl, keep trotting, give to the right, bend...no not just your neck, bend around my leg. There are so many things I take for granted on a trained horse! When I bought Kyie she was an unbroke three year old...she sure has come a long way!

I had a great lesson on Kylie today. She was quiet, relaxed and straight with a nice big open stride. Sure is easy and fun when she's like that! Here is one of the courses we did (not exactly to scale).

1a/1b One stride left hand turn to a bounce at the top of the ring (2a/2b). Left hand turn around fence 5 to a long approach to jump fence 3 at an angle. Back through the one stride to the six stride outside line (5 & 6). Up the diagonal in five strides finishing off on the single oxer (9). We also practiced flowing through roll backs because I allow Kylie to stall out in the turn sometimes loosing our momentum. Since her tendency is to drift left I have to make sure on a right rollback I steer out far enough so I can guide her back to the right. If I turn in too soon or cut the turn, I inevitably end up on the left side of the jump.

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