Riding Part 3.....Collection and Basic Patterns

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog for Part 3!

I got these pictures last week, but I just have not had the time to blog about it yet..until now! Enjoy!

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Mrs. June came over to help me work on some Collection and Pattern work. Since Ollie's first show is June 25th, we are working on a lot of collection, bending, and patterns. He want him to learn two "styles" of how to carry his body, both "Collected", and "Long and Low." 

Ollie has a very high tie-in to from his chest to his neck, and with his breeding, he prefers to keep his head at the natural level, as shown here:

It is nice that he already naturally carries his neck in a good place for the show ring, but I really have to bring that nose in, as shown here:

It will take some time for him to tip his nose in and to hold it for longer periods of time, but practice makes perfect, right? :)

Anyway, before I got started on cones, Mrs. June had me warm Ollie up a little bit. I started with groundwork first...

In this picture I am keeping my feet in the same spot and just having Ollie trot around me.
 It is a super fun exercise to try! 

..and then did some bending to get his body soft and supple...

..as well as some trotting,,,,

...and loping each direction. 

I wanted him to turn sharply. Please note, I riding in a different saddle, and it places me slightly off of the shoulder-hip-heel placement of my body. No worries! I am getting a new saddle next month! 

After his warm up, I got directions from Mrs. June on how to use the patterns she had set up with the cones. 

Making sure I knew exactly what I was doing. 

My instructions were to walk up to the first pair of cones, and stop Ollie right to where his shoulder would be right next to the cone....

Laughing, because I missed the cones and stopped Ollie too late. Oops!

...walk diagonally to the next pair of cones, but ask Ollie to go "Long and Low"....

...and then stop at the next pair of cones. 

After I stopped Ollie, I would bend his head from side to side, ask him to collect, and walk off. After Ollie taking 5-6 collected steps, I would slowly release the reins and ask him to go "Long and Low". 

*Excuse the posture* Sometimes Ollie would go behind the vertical, but Mrs. June and I are going to worry about that later. I will blog post on it, too!!

Asking Ollie to go "Long and Low". He likes that! 

We then repeated this for 30 minutes or so. Basically, it was a big figure 8 with four stopping places. 

After Ollie started to do the pattern well at the walk (so, about 15 minutes) we did it at the trot. 

Overall, Ollie did fantastic, and I am so excited for our show!! We have 10 weeks (ish) left, and I am ready to see how far Mrs. June and I can take him. Stay tuned, more content is coming!!!

What am I doing!?  *Insert crying happy face emoji* 

Until next time!
~Alyssa