I'm back!

Yikes! I have not blogged in months! Alot has happened this past summer and I have alot of updates to put on here. I'm gonna worry about that later and just talk about my recent horse activity for now! My most recent play/ride was AWESOME! I set up a smaller pasture that is a nice arena size, and has a couple hills in it so it's fun to play in and a good workout for Belle (she needs some work on hills). I played with her on the 22 foot line, we had a ton of fun playing the games and speeding them up. Then we played at liberty in the arena and had a great time. We played some catching game and played with getting her to come to me at a trot and canter. She was coming at the trot great at really light phases, and her ears were forward and she had a nice expression! YAY! Normally she will come at faster gaits if I asked, but with a nasty look on her face.
Then I tacked her up. I rode her in a western saddle which I have not done in a LONG time, and we rode in the hackamore like usual.
We just did passenger lessons for the first 20 minutes or so. I am really starting to appreciate passenger lessons, I didn't use them much for a long time but now I am seeing how it really relaxes both Belle and myself, gets her impulsion better, and establishes my leadership. It is also SO good for me to just LET GO. I am a super control freak and dropping my reins and just letting her go where she wants KILLS me! So we did a walking passenger lesson as a warm up for about 5 minutes, then trotting for about 15. After I felt like she was pretty light on her go and whoa I played follow the rail. She normally doesn't have a problem with that but that particular day it was an issue. Not a big deal though, we played with it and it wasn't long before she was nice and light about staying on the rail. After we did that we did a short (5 minute maybe) passenger lesson, then started some Tit for Tat! I am also very much so appreciating this game! It establishes your leadership in the saddle SO MUCH, but it's so playful and casual the horse doesn't even realize that you are dominating them. They resist at first but it's so casual that it's not usually a big deal. So after playing tit for tat for awhile we did a cantering passenger lesson. That was fun! She isn't great about cantering under saddle but she's getting SO much better!!!! We had a blast cantering. She threw in a couple bucks but they were fun and a great fluidity test for me ;) We ended the session with another quick walking passenger lesson to cool her down, then I put her up.
All in all it was a great ride/play and considering I hadn't ridden her in a few days I was very impressed! =)