Schedule 12/7 - 12/13

Gogo's Weekly Work Schedule 12/7-12/13

Sunday 12/7
Jumping: Keep it simple, work on rhythm, relaxation

Monday 12/8
Dressage: Transitions, looseness, relaxation, leg yields, counter canter

Tuesday 12/9
Dressage: Transitions, looseness, relaxation, leg yields, counter canter, 10m circles

Wednesday 12/10
Lunge: In chambon… work on going FORWARD, transitions going right, steadiness and stretch going left

Thursday 12/11
Dressage: Transitions, looseness, relaxation, leg yields, counter canter, canter-walk-canters, 10m circles, shoulder-ins, stretchy circles

Friday 12/12
Dressage: Transitions, looseness, relaxation, leg yields, half-halts, counter canter, canter-walk-canters, 10m circles, shoulder-ins, haunches-ins, stretch and coming back up

Saturday 12/13
Day Off: Handwalk twice, 20mins each

Obviously just a rough outline. All the things I want to work on during my dressage days are all subject to change, of course - and they don't get schooled unless she is loose, supple and reaching for my hand, and not before then either. We try to vary our frame from more collection to stretching and back up again, but that is specifically something that always gets us during tests and something I really, really need to emphasize with her during our regular training sessions (i.e. yes that stretchy circle feels gooooood but no it does not mean when I bring you back up that you can revert back to the same stiffness and inverted-ness as when I first got on and started to warm you up! Our scores always go down after our free walks or our stretchy circles, bleugh! It's always hard giving her walk breaks because she has a really hard time coming back to work with the same level of suppleness that she had before the walk break, so often times when we walk, we're not taking a stretchy moment, we're doing something productive. She's not a horse you can just hop on and suddenly she's perfectly on the bit and off you go! Noooooo, Gogo is a bit trickier than that, alas, although it's very fun.

Might I also add that lately her walk-canters have been EXCELLENT. She feel so powerful and connected beneath me.... ooooooh the good shivers! Now, her canter walks have been a bit of a different story... but we're working on that. Her trot-canter transitions also seem to be smoothing out a little - something we occasionally struggle with as she likes to DRAMATICALLY sproing vertically UP into the canter. I even had that comment at the AECs on those transitions - "more up than forward."

I'll try to see if I can force my broken camera into taking a few pics of Gogo in her new digs tomorrow. I put up her stall Christmas decorations today - she has a jingly-bell wreath, a Warm Wintery Wishes sign, a silver and light blue painted horseshoe, and a light blue Christmas stocking that is in the shape of a high-heel with the word "Angel" on it - SO fitting. It still hasn't snowed here but it's getting cooooooold at night, even though it's still warm during the day. I think we're actually going to get a few inches of snow here this weekend - yay! I was under the impression that winter in New England was uniformly AWFUL everywhere, but this part of CT is apparently exempt.

Gogo's Christmas stall last year.