Update 17 | Schooling Ava ೃ⁀➷ This is an update for @Everlark_On_Fire. If you're interested in updates head to https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1263938640/ : ̗̀➛ Today I headed over to Winterwood Equestrian to work with one of Blu's beautiful horses, Ava! I was super honoured to work with this gorgeous mare as I've had my eye on her for a while! Today we worked on gait transitions, leg responsiveness and bending! : ̗̀➛ When I arrived I headed to her stall to get to know her a bit and tack up. I groomed her for a while just to get to know her and see what makes her tick. I then tacked her up and led her to the indoor arena. : ̗̀➛ During my warm up I focused on really getting Ava listening to me through transitions. I was told that she is not the most experienced so I really tried to work on giving her confident but soft commands. I did a lot of trot--walk--trot transitions in the warm up on circles and she was quite slow at the beginning but learnt quickly and was responsive off the leg by the time I added in the canter. At first I worked on getting a balanced working trot and at the corner asked for a canter. It took her a few seconds but eventually she moved into a canter. I cantered a circle and brought her back to trot, trying again in the next corner. She was better but still not perfect. The third time I asked for canter on a circle she responded beautifully and gave me a wonderful working canter! : ̗̀➛ For the main exercise I set up a basic three-loop serpentine but with a ten-metre circle on each loop. That way we could work on bending on a more interesting exercise than simple circles so she wouldn't get bored. I walked the exercise to begin with and she was already quite good on the bend. I then tried the exercise in trot and she wasn't too keen on circling to the left, throwing her head in the air and hollowing her back. I worked on circling to the right and achieving a good bend by using my arms, legs and seat. When she'd understood that I tried again to the left and it worked! After I'd done this a few times I cooled her off, untacked her and gave her lots of treats for her great performance!
@Everlark_On_Fire for letting me use her horse & facilities! | Ava | rider base, arena bg | stall bg | puffer jacket
