10/3 | Ride Report
Texas in the summer is not the most conducive for riding, but Texas in the Fall is simply incredible. Cool mornings, light breezes and warm sunshine make this my favorite time of year.
It’s also the perfect time of year to take advantage of the increased flexibility of my new job to add a third day at the barn each week – this week, it was Monday.
I happened to not have any meetings on Monday morning and we had a very relaxed Sunday so I had time to feel prepared for the week. So, I headed up for an early ride just after making sure my 13 year old was out of bed and started on his school morning routine.
On work days, I have to be quick and focused with my rides.
Since Sunday was…not the best ride I’ve ever had…i knew that to make this quicker ride a good one was going to take focus. I opted to work relaxation in the leg yield.
Elf is comfortable with the movement and it’s one that I regularly use in my warm to check that he’s in front of and responsive to my leg, but he does tend to brace at the base of his neck. That can contribute to a tense leg yield that easily gets crooked.
30 minutes to Leg Yield
I started with our usual warm up – walking through figure eights and serpentines until he’s reaching for contact and activating his core muscles (which I feel as increased swing through his back as his hind legs step further underneath him). Then, we did the same at the trot, throwing in 20m circles periodically to focus on checking the bend and moving the shoulder to the outside because Elf likes to fall in when he braces his neck.
In the warm up, I keep my hands as light as possible and the reins wrong. As Elf reaches for contact, I’ll pick up a little and then a little more so that after 10 minutes or so I’m at our usual working rein length.
I spent the rest of our ride, about 15 minutes, working on leg yields with a some trot-canter transitions and canter 20m circles tossed in when Elf reacted to pressure in the leg yield.
I started small – turning on to the quarter line from the short side of the arena and moving immediately into the leg yield to the wall and then directly into a 15m circle. For 16.2 Elf, this is just a few strides and coming straight out of the turn helps him to maintain the bend. Tagging the 15m circle onto the end keeps his focus and is a useful way to do a balance check in a very gentle way.
Once that exercise felt solid, I added going from the wall to the quarter line and from the centerline to the wall. I kept the contact very light since my primary focus was relaxation through the movement rather than a perfectly correct or test accurate leg yield. Whenever I felt tension creep in, we moved into a 10 or 15m figure eight or trot-canter-trot transitions on a 20m circle. These are things that are relatively auto for Elf and he tends to relax into them, focusing on the aids.
The 30 minutes went quicker than I expected, so when I noticed my watch was 28 minutes after a particularly consistent leg yield to the left (Elf’s tougher direction), I called it good.
These morning rides often have me riding while breakfast is being fed – so Elf is happy for a quick walk and being put away! An extra bonus is that this lets him enjoy his full turnout time (from 9 to 1:30 at our current barn). And I was able to head home, shower and be at my desk by 9:30 am.
