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3/14/02
CHANGE OF PROGRAM
It seems that I am always preparing a horses to go to the show
pen. This is not the case of Tempest. At this point she has plenty
of handle, wait and self confidence. So, the direction for Tempest
is to just go the distance. Most of the distance will be at the
walk. Early in the Spring is a difficult time to ride them especially
with another horse because each one feeds off of the other. If
the lead horse feels good, grabs itself and squeals, the second
one does the old adage, "monkey see, monkey do." Because
of that simple factor, I will ride Tempest almost exclusively
solo. That way she has no one to mimic. She will be forced to
focus on me and stay relaxed.
As the days become longer and the weather is good, I will
get Tempest ridden a minimum of 4 rides per week. She will go
the distance but there will be no speed. I already know that
she has a big motor so there is no reason to work on it. Control
is what we will work on the whole time. I will trot her here
or there, but only a couple hundred yards at a time but 90% of
the ride will be at the walk. Each ride will be from 4-10 miles
almost completely at the walk. I will trot or lope her when she
tells me that she is not thinking about speed. These rides will
be boring to me but that's to bad.
We have plans to do 3-4 LD rides on her this year her 4 year
old year. If the ride has a 6 hour limit, we will take 5-6 hours
for the ride, no speed, just go the distance, remember, "Less
is More." |
