Walker Bootcamp

I am fortunate enough this summer that I have August off, and because the summer is often a very hectic time for me, I always feel as though I never get the chance to go to the barn.  Even though I was working 5 days a week, commuting every day, and generally working longer hours than a normal 9 - 5 job, I still managed to get to the barn about 5 times a week, but I wouldn't exactly say that my rides were productive.  Most of the time, I was so exhausted, I was simply there to say that I was there and give my horse soe exercise.

When I first got Walker, we took things pretty slow.  We didn't lope in my lessons for a long time until I felt that I had sufficient enough control of him to feel confident that I wouldn't run into anyone.  The other riders in my lesson have been riding longer than I have, and although they are all thankfully adults, our instructor has us doing things which are probably slightly too advanced for my current standing with my horse.  I never feel like they are impossible, and oftentimes I find that I surprise myself with what we can accomplish - but because winters are so harsh here, there's a definite rush on to do as many of the complex things we can before we are relegated to our very small indoor arena.  Needless to say, there's not as much of an emphasis on the basics.

But Walker is new to me and I still find that we need to work on the basics.  Riding a horse is a step-by-step process - you cannot start doing something with the proper foundations.  Even though I feel like my own capabilities might be a little higher (if I was on another less unruly horse, for example), it's still difficult to find what works for me and Walker.

Hence, Walker bootcamp.  I decided that because I now have a lot of time on my hands, and in particular, the entire month of August, Walker and I are going to get our butts into shape and start working like the team I know (or I'm at least relatively sure) we can be.  Mainly I want us to get to a level where we can start working on the finer things that we work on already in our lessons.  I want us to start working towards my irrational goals of jumping a crossrail or even doing more complex patterns at the lope (we have actually done one of those...).  Most importantly, I have to do something with that attitude!

It's hard to argue with a face like that!

Today was lesson plan number 1.  I have divided the month into the four weeks, each having 5 lesson plans.  If I ride Walker 14 times in a week, it doesn't matter - only 5 are planned, and nothing says that I can't do two in a day.  They all build on eachother, and I'm trying to introduce a lot of daily goals to keep us focused.  Today, for instance, the only goal was to get both our heads back in the game after Walker threw me last week and he ended up getting a 5 day rest while I was at home for a wedding.  It wasn't that productive of a ride, and although I wanted to work on some speed control issues he has at the lope, we never really did too much loping.  That's ok though because tomorrow is another day, and with the constant plans, we are only bound to improve.  After all, most of the time, you simply need to put some miles in the saddle.