Today I got to ride with my BLUE BANDANNA!!!! Sophomore 1 rode in the Blue Arena. Blue bandanna, blue arena LOL. I got Duke #112. He is a stocky buckskin horse. Stubborn butt. The pasture mud was SO deep. I sunk up to my mid shin. My jeans are covered in mud. (Bleach is a Westernaires best friend) Duke was great for grooming. He got a little edgy towards the end. He wouldn't stand still while I was mounting up but other than that he was fine, but it was really annoying. In the blue with the old T1 and T9 in there it was VERY crowded. When we were single file on the rail we could barley keep the proper spacing. Everyone looked so different with the blue bandannas. We worked a lot in fours so we could utilize the arena more. We did turning in fours, splitting at the rail, passing left hand to left hand. Then we got to try to Thread the Needle. It is a maneuver preformed in all the drill teams! It was so much fun! It took us a few tries but we got the hang of it. Right side always goes first. We cut it really close and it looked awesome! I really enjoyed that. We also got to do a Pass Through. I love doing drills! You have to pass left hand to left hand with your pair at the center then turn at the rail in the direction you were going before the Pass Through. Duke was being a total butt while riding in fours. When we are boot to boot it doesn't give you much room to kick the horse so I was really having to work to keep him trotting when we were the rail rider. When we were on the inside we just needed to walk mostly. He tried to bite like 3 horses. I really hope we ride outside next time. We had a long conversation about foot position and SPURS. They talked about what kind of spur to buy and how to use them. A spur that has a rowel about 3/4 of an inch or dime sized. We also need a rubber tied down to go underneath the boot and a leather strap to go over it. The buckle should be on the outside of your boot. To use them you should apply pressure with your calf, if that doesn't get him going then just turn your toes slightly outward so the spur just touches the horse then point them forward again. That is usually when the horse realizes, Oh Man This Is Juniors! Spurs are not used to punish a horse. I can not wait. They talked to us about making sure your boot has a spur lip for the spur to rest on. My boot does, but you couldn't tell with all the mud. I was talking with a JI and he said once you have spurs you will wonder how you ever lived with out them. I'm already wondering how I am living with out them. We didn't get to lope but overall it was a great ride as a 2nd year! With 2 loads in the wash and lots of bleach and soap my jeans are almost perfectly white again. All the White division base teams were practicing with flags and stuff. I really want to try that. I am just happy that I finally wear a blue bandanna :)
Here are some pictures of Duke
 |
| Riding in a 4 |
No comments:
Post a Comment