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

Riding With Mrs. June

Hello everyone!

Today Ollie, Billie, my mom and I all were trailered (well, we rode in the truck...the horses were trailered) by Mrs. June to her house where she has a big track and 35 acres. We worked on lots of stuff, like flying lead changes, passing horses on the rail, the cloverleaf pattern, collection, bending....etc. I also saw Rusty again, who was the horse I learned the start of my Natural Horsemanship with. I thought y'all would probably enjoy some pictures, so here you go!

"Mommy wait! Let me pose for the camera! 1, 2, 3....tongue!!!"

Mom and Billie Jean

Ollie and I trotting. 

Trot race!! 

In sync. 

Canter Collection-after only his 2nd day doing this I think he did really well! 

Random Saddle picture

Ollie and Rusty

I have a few more exciting things to tell you, but they will have to wait!! :D STAY TUNED!

~Alyssa 

More On Jumps

I thought Jumping was so much fun at Dawson Butte, but I wanted to be more prepared for the bigger jumps and have a better seat. So, my horse trainer came out, we took a break on body control, and we jumped Ollie yesterday.

Ollie loves jumping, and he really picks his feet up. We had to lift the jumps more though because he started to just canter over the small jumps because he is so athletic. 

Pretty Boy

All of his groundwork is paying off-he now easily canters in a circle around the person with a lot of slack in the rope. 

He is incredibly willing to try nearly anything-maybe that is part of his Appaloosa nature. While he may be stubborn sometimes, I am glad that he is ready to learn anything thrown at him (except maybe a plastic bag.....still working on that). 

After he started to get the idea of jumping and where his body is, I saddled him and got on. 

Mrs. June helped show me where my hands are supposed to be, and a friend of mine who has been jumping for years also came by and showed me what to do considering posture. 

I was still using a Western saddle, although I do have an english saddle. I haven't ridden English in a while, and I knew that I would be more comfortable in the Western Saddle. However, I will probably get my english saddle out next time! 

"Don't look at the jump...."

"Prepare for the jump....contact, contact!!"

"Start to lean forward and slide your hands up his neck..."

"OVER!!" 

I had a great time working more on jumping, and while jumping is also fun, it is teaching Ollie more about how to use his body. Just during this lesson, I asked him to canter from a walk without and trot steps in the correct lead and he did it! I have NEVER been able to get that out of him yet, and just during the lesson I asked him three times and he did all three times without fail. While the lesson was about jumping, probably the most monumental thing to me was when he did that.

Until next time!

~Alyssa