Success! The double bridle introduction went just fine. Actually, the worst part of it was putting it on. For some reason, Willow's ear phobia reared its ugly head again tonight. I got the bridle over one ear, but it took some convincing to get it over the second ear. Time to do some remedial carrot therapy.
Once it was on, things went swimmingly. I rode for about twenty minutes with just the bridoon reins, and that went so well I went ahead and picked up the curb reins, leaving a big loop. Even with a loop in the reins, I could tell that Willow could feel something different, but she didn't object too much. I was pleased to find that she felt softer, even in a higher frame. She was highly attentive to my half halts. All in all, she felt just super. And my fingers remembered how to manage the reins. We didn't do anything fancy -- just lots of biggish circles and transitions.
I'm going to work her in the double again tomorrow and Tuesday, and then go back to the snaffle for a week.
In other news, I bought three echinacea plants on clearance yesterday. I left the containers on the driveway because it was too hot for digging. A couple hours later, I found that my German shorthair Sam had pretty much eaten all the leaves off them. Perhaps he felt a cold coming on.
No comments:
Post a Comment