Lovely day so I took Lexie out for a hack. We went about 4 miles and we worked in all gaits with a special emphasis on being relaxed, especially in walk. She had some nice work.

In the last few sessions I have worked on helping her tune in to the seat, and with that coming along nicely, I started work on the canter to trot transition. We worked on staying relaxed in canter and reacting calmly to downward transition aids and made some nice progress.

The gravel roads are perfect for hacking because the footing is soft enough for the horses and also makes the cars drive slow when they go by, of which there were exactly two because people avoid soft gravel – bonus! Missy on Sammy and I on Lexie went down Cam’s road and then east to the creek, about four miles. She got looser and looser in a positive manner. Great ride.

South drapes open on the arena and more work on seat aids. She is doing well!

She is catching on big time!

Since it is supposed to be so cold tomorrow and Monday, I was on a mission to work everyone today. Lexie and I worked more on seat aids today, with very good success. After a brief review, she showed the correct response in walk and even had some moments of nice rebalance in trot. Her canter work was more malleable as well! Great!

After a nice walk warm-up in the relative warmth of 29 degrees (yes, I was riding in a sweatshirt, no jacket) I did about 30 walk to halt transitions to help her understand the said aid for collecting. We spend a lot of time teaching horses that the calf means “go” and spending some time teaching them that the thigh and the lower back mean “rebalance” is time well spent.

She started to understand the concept well in walk and to make the appropriate changes. She even carried it forward into trot and canter well. This was a great start.

Another lovely day, thought the clouds were already coming in, in front of the storm this weekend. Nevertheless, we rolled up the south curtains and went to work. She had a nice walk warm up and some good trot work. Canter was a little tight and it improved.

Lovely day, ride in a sweatshirt weather. I brought her in and groomed her and tacked up. We worked on working over her topline and coming through and had some good success.