SEPT 28 | Ride Report – If the Saddle Fits

Learning to make the most of short rides during a busy season.

Texas is slowly, reluctantly drifting towards Fall.

Our highs are still in the 90s, but today’s 7:30 am ride included a gorgeous 57 degrees and the trees are slowly starting to mellow their bright green leaves.

To go along with the cooler morning, Elf’s darker winter coat is quickly growing in. Today was the first day that he had that soft, dusty feel that comes with fuzzy winter horse coat. I made a mental note that I needed to check my clipper blades and block a whole day on the calendar for a “spa” day.

I knew coming in to my ride that I needed to be quick. I had a work meeting this morning that required me to get home and take shower by 9:30 am. So, after a quick groom and tack up, we headed to the arena with that in mind.

This Fall, I’ve had to learn to embrace and enjoy these shorter barn trips. If I want to ride during the work week (and I have to if I want to ride more than once or twice a week), I need to be able to make an hourish barn trip feel productive and enjoyable.

It turns out that it’s pretty easy to have a good 30 minute ride, and all the excuses I came up with to not go to the barn when time was tight were really just in my head.

am I going to master second level in a 30 minute ride? No. But I’m not going to in an hour ride, either.

Instead, today I choose to focus on basics – I did a quick check on our walk-trot-walk transitions during my warm up. We’ve been really working on up transitions lately and that work is starting to pay off with prompt movement and more consistent contact through the transition. Down transitions? Felt a little sticky and abrupt.

That’s one small thing that I can work on in a number of different ways for 15 minutes that will improve future rides.

Today, I started by concentrating on riding my corners accurately. Elf has a tendency to fall in at the shoulder and cut the corner. To hold the integrity of the corner and keep his inside hind leg engaged, I asked for a step or two of leg yield to the outside through the corner. It was harder for him going to the right – which makes sense since the right hind tends to be a little shorter strided.

Once the trot rhythm felt good and Elf was more consistent through the corners, we did some quarter circle transitions – essentially a transition between walk and trot at the 4 compass points of the 20m circle. For Elf this means about 3 or 4 strides and he has to pay close attention in order to do the exercise correctly.

Next, we alternated between trotting across the diagonal asking for a little shoulder fore with transitions mixed in and leg yielding off the rail to 10m half circle to change directions. Elf is quite confident in his trot leg yields so mixing that in helped him settle when picking at the transitions frustrated him.

I make an effort not to drill things with Elf. He’s 19 and has to be finessed a bit when he’s under pressure so this kind of very specific work is perfect for a ride where I only have 10 or 15 minutes to break something down. It was enough to get him loose and moving forward, but not so much that he needed an extended cool down thanks to the cooler temperature. A short walk down the driveway to appreciate the leaves starting to turn and he could go back to the barn to enjoy his breakfast!