Saturday ride on Catalina

My ride on Catalina this past Saturday was the best ride I’ve ever had on her.

She was very relaxed and was much more willing to flex and relax the neck muscles as well as use her back.

Her halts are improving and when I halt and ask her to flex she no longer wants to back up.

Carole had given me some exercises to do before the Shannon Peters clinic and Shannon gave me more exercises along the same lines which were very helpful.
Now that Catalina is understanding to follow the reins better and also to yield the leg in a more relaxed way it’s time to move on to more excersises.

I’ll be working with Carole again next week to begin the next step of doing more transitions and teaching Catalina to use her back more.

As her halts get perfected the turn on the forehand will get better as well.
I had already started turn on the forehand before the Shannon Peters clinic but she was critical of me doing the movement when Catalina was not on the bit.

In light of that I have been working on simple halts and flexion, and now Catalina understands that light contact and flexion does not mean to back up.

Catalina will make her first outing off the farm at the end of July in the Debbie McDonald clinic.