Riding Away: Carmen the Magnificent Edition

 Fortunately Carmen is not too annoyed for not telling you about her brilliant performance yet. I told her that I needed to go through all the video first.  

What is interesting about Carmen is how great a traveller she has become. She hesitated going in the barn yard first bit otherwise self-loaded and was happy in her new stall. Once she chewed everything out first. And that all translated into her rides. My lesson was shortly after we arrived. 

Initially I thought that the purpose of our lesson was to get off the outside rein. But I realized that was incorrect- it was to get on the outside rein. Hear me out- I can ( at least in theory) let go of the inside rein but that doesn’t mean that has contact on the outside. We could just be prancing around on 2 loose reins. 

Jane was very committed that I was to get her to take contact on the outside rein and then ask her to flex or bend to the inside. She explained that when Carmen’s head tilted it was because she wasn’t through to the outside. 

Honestly, it was exactly the precise lesson I needed. At first Carmen would simply bend to the outside. Turns out I had to use my leg to help her, but even if she didn’t bend, I was not allowed to take the inside until I had her on the outside. Up at the far end were sone stacks of hay.  I put on my outside rein and she went ‘ooh snacks!’ And grabbed a mouthful. I burst out laughing. 

Carmen: how come our ring doesn’t have a buffet?

As the lesson progressed I began to understand how important this work is. And Carmen began to understand about the outside rein as well. And she began reaching for the bit. 

Love this capture of Jane, us and the other clinic participants. It takes a

This work resulted in Carmen becoming soft and, well the only word I can think of is pliable. Or transitions became so fluid. Our canter was soft and balanced. You could barely hear her footfalls. 

Here’s a brief clip: 

We’d been doing shoulder in off and on through the lesson.  It always feels like it requires lots of support. At the end of the lesson we did ones that gave me goosebumps. They felt perfect. Unfortunately, my Pivo quit videoing by then so I have zero proof. But Jane thought they were good enough for us to end on. So there’s that. 

Carmen enjoyed her hose off and I turned them both out to enjoy some grass  in the barn Carmen was being admired by cute gelding  she accepted his admiration as her due but let him know she was tolerating his presence  when he left she was annoyed  ‘Hey, I wasn’t done being pissy with you!’ 

So much mare face

Julia rode Carmen the next day.  I realized that somewhere along the line she is becoming a schoolmaster. She was really good through the whole lesson and didn’t pull any stunts like she has in the past with her.  I was so proud of both of them.