Lease Ride - Dec. 23rd + 25th 2025 - Training Journal Entry #14 + #15

 Dec. 23rd --

My lease ride on Tuesday was great. We rode in the lower arena, there was nothing set up so we created our own exercise. 3 bounce poles to a one stride pole with standards and then 3 strides to another set of bounce poles.

We actually didn't realize just how much it would help us when were setting up, we just thought it would be a fun exercise to get there brains working.

we had already warmed up walk trot canter, we got both leads first try and our trot was very nice, so we started our exercise. We had set it up a little farther in than the quarter line because there were some muddy spots in the ring by the rail, it helped with having a earlier turn and straightness off the rail. We started by trotting through the line first, and if it rode nicely we picked up our canter in the top corner, cantering around the ring to find a nice canter and then cantering up the line. He trotted through very nicely so we were able to canter through. We were riding with two ponies so the striding was just a bit short for Sindri but we made it work, we ended up cantering through twice to fix our striding just a bit.

We did the same thing coming towards the barn, but the exercise was reversed having the bounce poles, 3 strides to the pole with stands and then one stride to the last bounces. It proved to be a bit more difficult having those 3 strides straight away because all the horses got a bit quick through it. The first time through wasn't bad, but our bounces were a bit of a struggle. the next time we came through I knew he would get a little ahead of himself, so I worked on keeping the same pace through it and not getting to quick and messing up our bounces. It wasn't perfect but it was much better, we came down one more time and it was his best one. I let him be done on that and we walked on the track to cool out.

Dec. 25th --

We had a really good christmas ride, I got to use my new navy saddle pad on him and it looked really cute!

We did a lot of circles, and changing direction in our warm up at the trot. he had the nicest trot he's ever offered to me.

At the canter we did something a little bit different. We started to the left, and did a canter circle at the top of the ring, a circle in the middle of the ring, and a circle at the bottom of the ring and he did very good with that, I was prepared for him to drift out a little bit when we did the circle in the middle of the ring, but he was perfect. We did the same thing to the right, but started from the bottom and worked our way up to the top, he got his lead first try, and i think the circles helped with his bend. One thing I noticed about his canter was it was a really nice canter, he wasn't too forward in it, and the consistency was nice. I was also able to sit it better than I normally can.

After we had warmed up we started our exercise, we pretty much built off what we did on tuesday, except we added a circle after the pole with standards when we came up the line and a circle during the 3 strides when we came down the line. It helped a lot when we were coming down because he wouldn't lock onto the next section and speed up. It also helped because in the past jumper shows we've had to turn out in the middle of a line, so it's preparing him that not every line will actually be a line.

We came up the line first, and he did really good figuring out where his feet needed to go and then coming back to his line after the circle to do the bounce.

Coming down the line was a little bit messy the first time, because he locked onto the second part before we started the circle so he was little bit confused but he got it the second time we came through it, so we finished on that and walked the track. 

My sister got a couple of dressage books for christmas, each one is a 28 day training plan to work on the horses dressage and flat work, It has 3 ride plans in each section with different exercises to ride at least 3 times, and have to master that exercise before moving onto the next section. I thought it would be really good for Sindri (and me) to do it with my sister and Chai so we can help each other and focus some of our rides more on dressage so we can do better in our events! 

This is the first book, but there's a whole series.

I would also be able to include some pictures of the pages of what parts we are working on in case some of the other people who ride Sindri (and you when you start riding again) want to work on it too!!