First Day Back At The Lease

Today (May 16th) I started my lease back up... and I went in with a PLAN for my ride. It's always hard going from 2 lessons a month to 3 days a week because it's hard to decide WHAT to do and how to structure rides at first.

The photo may be deceiving, but he was covered in dry mud when I arrived.

My plan was to work on walk/trot transitions to get his lazy little brain listening, then move into working on our weakest points from dressage tests in the past (free walk, resistance, bend, etc.). To be blunt, if he weren't awkward over fences he would be more suited as a hunter... he HATES anything dealing with dressage, and lets me know by being a giraffe and resisting any sort of contact. 

This is 2-year-old photo, but it shows how he likes to carry himself 100% of the time. Gross, huh?

Needless to say, it's been a huge struggle. Pair that with the fact that I have been riding only 2 times a month for the entirety of my 4-year college career, and he hasn't improved much. To be fair, he has NO muscle because of his lack of work, so it is REALLY hard for him anyway... but we will be working on that now that I am done with college. 

So we started with the plan I mentioned above... then I worked on sitting trot (because he's giant and it's hard to sit the trot on him so that's a work in progress) and did some bending exercises. We tried to work on him stretching down at the walk instead of flipping his head and only ever offering a walk like this:

It's a long process, and I would LOVE to hear some exercises to help him figure out how to stretch down (WITHOUT widening and lowering my hands a ton and applying pressure to the bars of his mouth like a lot of people like to do). 

Then, toward the end of the ride, all of the horses got let out into the grass pasture at the back of the property, and Mr. Boat lost any tiny amount of focus that he had because, well, HE WANTED TO GO OUT WITH THEM and I was tortuously trying to make him do his least favorite thing (I'm so rude he's convinced he's retired already). 

So, it wasn't a great first ride back... but we did have a few good moments, and that's the important part! That leaves me with a question: How do you structure your rides, and what are your favorite ways to help build proper muscle on your out-of-shape horses?

"Giving me treats and not making me work builds muscle!" - Otis, probably