Needs More Impulsion

I went over the notes from my ride at the last show and one thing kept showing up - needs more impulsion. Ironically, by the time I had my lesson with Betsy, Toby had been in for a couple of days due to the very wet conditions outdoors. He had a lot of impulsion from behind on lesson day! In fact he gave his impulsion an exclamation point or two with a few happy feet kicks into the air. So I guess the key to more impulsion will be to keep him in for a couple of days... Ha ha!

In all seriousness, Toby marched around the arena like a horse on a mission and he was loving it. It took a few minutes of flying around with his head stretched up as high as he could get it before he began to relax and take the bit. At that point he was lovely! Betsy couldn't believe how forward he was moving. I was just laughing. You never know what you'll get with your horse on any given day. I know, dear reader, you know exactly what I'm saying! You just have to adjust your riding for what you have that day. My lesson that day was a lesson on getting my horse to relax and get on my aids. How ironic since I had in my mind I was going to be focusing on giving him more get-up-and-go.

Once again I'm off on a trip for work so no lesson this week. Hopefully, we will complete play on Sunday so I can go home as scheduled on Monday and make my Tuesday lesson. Then I'll have another show on the 18th at the lovely B&B/winery Blackstar Farms.

In the meantime, Traverse City is preparing for the biggest horse show in the state of Michigan which will be arriving in the coming days. Betsy, my rock star trainer, was written up in this article today: Giddy Up! Horse Show is Bigger Than Ever Be sure to check out the photos of Betsy and her horse Tanner on the right side of the page. They will be competing at Horse Shows By The Bay at the end of the month.