When my alarm went off at 6:00 AM, the last thing I wanted to do was get up and go ride, but I'm certainly glad that I did. Gali was excellent. I did almost fall off before I was really even on, though. Nicole had moved her set of cavaletti to the entrance of the ring, at A. Now, these are bright red blocks and white poles that are usually on the side of the ring. As part of 90% of my warmups, we trot over them as ground poles. Gali has seen them every day since May, so I thought nothing of it when I hopped on and walked him to the ring. He froze and side-stepped into a corner that was created by the arena chain fence and the red block, snorting and leaning back away from the block. I booted him to the side, expecting him to take one step sideways and walk over the ground pole, but he instead moved forward even DEEPER into the corner. At this point, I had still been gathering up my reins and didn't have my stirrups. It felt like he was going to jump the corner, but he ended up wheeling around in a spin. I didn't expect it at all and once I regained my balance, I gave him a quick lesson on what to do with ground poles and things he is afraid of. Doofus horse.
After he got over the scary red blocks, we began to work. His trot work was rushed at first, but we did some lengthening and collecting within the gait, and once he was sitting back on his hind end, he sustained it well, relaxed and reaching for contact with his back up. Our canter work was the best it's been in ages - I was actually able to get him to sustain a canter on his own, and get him to carry himself a bit. This was huge, because it allowed me to take a minute to feel how my body was, and I could feel that I was leaning to the left. I raised my left shoulder and opened my chest, and the change in his balance was noticeable. I was also able to relax my legs and open my hips, allowing his back to come up and his shoulders to rise in the canter. Nicole commented on our transitions being very balanced and even when Gali fell out of the canter, he was falling into a great trot, and only doing that because he was having a hard time keeping up the canter.
One thing that helped him pick up the canter was making the transition from a slower trot than his normal working trot, and I need to remember that so we do not keep rushing into the transitions.
In barn-search news, my list of 22 non-call-backs hasn't changed. However, there's a very nice barn that I am looking at tomorrow, so, fingers crossed that it ends up being "the one"!
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