To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Breaking in new equipment

I am pleased to announce that the pristine long lines purchased last year are now used and soiled! Yesterday was the one dry day in the forecast - well, other than Sunday, but we will be spending that day hopefully finishing up a building project for the sheep. Anyway. So. I got Russell brushed off and tacked up, free-lunged for a bit to warm him up,and then put him to work. Not for too long, as I want to carefully recondition him, but enough to just break a sweat and get some nice results. Long lines allow you to flex your horse left and right, apply half-halts, encourage stretching - generally just about everything you can do under saddle without adding the burden of the extra weight and balance issues of the rider. I was very pleased with how he went, especially considering we have had a couple less positive experiences with long lines in the past. When Russell is fit enough to handle it, I will schedule a long-lining lesson with Suzan so she can help me be more correct and effective with these wonderful tools.

1 comment:

allhorsestuff said...

Great work!
Love to hear of the effort your horse made...very cool!
Check out the video I have on long lining(my sidebar) it has a very handy way, that the instructor shows you how to set up, to correctly and easily fasten the lines to the surcingle for a more accurate feel for the horse. Your instructor will do that too I betya!
Love watching the progress!
KK