What a fun little sports car riding horse Veronica has become, we should call her our little red Miata! She was very well behaved throughout the recent clinic. We worked a lot on improving her hindquarters and true unified walk. When she gets in balance, the trot and canter work feel stronger, and she has a ton of power pushing from behind and over her topline. She has always been a show stopper with her long beautiful mane, but now people are seeing more than just a pretty face.
Again, Joel had praise for her softness and potential. It is truly a feat that we were able to turn this wild girl into a riding horse. It is great to have a horse in our riding program with so much life to offer. Our clinics give us a good check up to make sure we are on the right track and continue to progress. She still requires a very attentive rider to help keep her out of trouble and free from getting tight or braced up when external energy arises.
Recently, good changes have been carrying over to the next day in regards to her issues of changing eyes, especially to the right. She is getting more confident and holding the right flexion for longer periods of time. Her tendency has been to snap her head back to check out her left side and it takes some amount of work to help her relax and keep right. A big part of the progress has been getting her whole body to wrap around the rider’s inside leg. When she feels the confidence to move her body to the left while looking to the right, her body turns loose and she becomes balanced and soft. Yes, we have been working on this from day one, but part of the battle was safely staying on her and not having setbacks due to her fear. Now that she is more comfortable with a rider, we can go back and clean up some of the work such as more quality hindquarters and freedom in moving her rib cage both left and right.
We all are taking a big sigh of relief that she is making it as a riding horse. Veronica is very talented, and for a soft, confident, and supportive rider, she will make a great partner. She has a pleasing head set and becomes very soft in self-carriage and with time, she is going to move up the levels easily. To say she’ll be a show stopper is an understatement.
