Yesterday, not so good. Not really bad, but not listening very well. Monday was Nic's day off, and she's usually more stiff after her day off. We did a lot of trot-canter transitions, and she conned me into a counter canter. By conned I mean she didn't come down to a trot when asked on a figure 8. I figured if she wanted to try counter canter, who was I to stop her? Suprisingly (or not so), she listened better in counter canter, meaning she accepted half halts with less of a fight, probably because she doesn't have great balance and she's forced to depend on me more, rather than try to find ways to not work. I've also found, after riding many different horses, that counter canter, for some reason, gets horses more balanced.
Anyway, trot-canter transitions tend to get her excited; she really likes them. She's weird though.
About this not listening thing, the mare just needs to be reminded that she can't blow through the aids. She likes to surge ahead, instead of remaining within my aids. So we worked a lot on getting her to listen properly. I wasn't immensely successful, although she was listening better towards the end. If she isn't more on the aids today, a training ride may be in order. I'm sure she looked fine from the ground, because her MO is to look perfect from the ground, so everyone else thinks I'm crazy.
I'm signing us up for another show in May. If there are no more EHV-1 outbreaks in the near future, we should be set to show.
