I love this pic, because of how round and buff she looks!
Favorite picture. Beautifulness!Today was the first day of the Anne Kursinski clinic!
Monroe and I arrived at Portola training center around 9. I unloaded my stuff, put her in her stall (with food of course!) parked the trailer, and gave her the rest of her breakfast. Our ride time came up in no time, so I quickly tacked up and headed to the indoor ring where the clinic was being held.
Monroe was a bit hot, but I had my running on just in case. She warmed up pretty well, though a little tense for my liking. Anne focused on getting the group to use their eyes, and use the ring and pace adjustments to keep even spacing between all the riders. Monroe was moving a little quick, so I was repeatedly told to shorten my reins, until Anne finally tied a knot in them to make me hold them at the length she wanted! Monroe was a bit pissed off by these short reins, but behaved admirably.
After extensive flatwork, focusing on control and awareness, we moved on to a crossrail-the first element of the gymnastic. We were to trot into the crossrail in two point, and then stop between the third set of standards. The first time we stopped a bit too late, the second a bit too early. The second time however she gave us brownie points for the control-ability! She had us drop our stirrups for the halt to sink our seat deeper in the saddle, and prevent pinching at the knees. She then slowly added more elements to the gymnastic, until finally it was cross rail, 1 stride to oxer, 1 stride to vertical. At the end, we were first asked to circle left, and then later asked to make a right angle turn to the right and then halt. We messed up the right turn the first time, because I had to go first and I didn't understand what she wanted, but on our second try we were praised! :]
Next, she introduced the group to the automatic release, where I excelled! We held our reins like driving reins, and rode through the gymnastic with "v" reins without being allowed to use the neck for support. The idea was to get our hands to follow the motion of the horse's mouth and force our bodies to support themselves. I did really really well with this exercise, it really forces me to not jump ahead and use my body like it is supposed to be used. We then switched to a different gymnastic, which was oxer, 3 strides, bounce, 2 strides, bounce-still practicing our automatic releases. I was used as the example of excellence!!! :]
It was a great day, and I am soooo excited for tomorrow!!
