Reign Day last raced on January 31, 2010. It has now been just nineteen days since his last race and just 12 days since he arrived at Bits & Bytes Farm. So far the training has been slowed by snow (we NEVER get snow in Georgia), high winds and rain. Still we have gotten several good rides in on him. He has been adjusted by the chiropractor and he has learned how to be lunged. Reign Day walks and trots quietly in the arena on a Happy Mouth double jointed bit wrapped in Sealtex. He has shown himself to be kind and willing and quiet. He has even trotted over poles on the ground. Everyone loves this horse!
February 19 – Reign Day was fantastic today. We did a lesson with Alice and she taught me a few things and helped me with my seat position. She kept yelling at me to bring my leg long under his side to make him go forward rather than reaching back with my heel. I tried to bump him with my leg as she requested and he did not respond. She told me to do it again harder. I told her I was doing it harder each time. Finally, I showed her by swinging my leg way away from his side and banging it back against it over and over. He just reacted with a, “Whatever” and kept moseying along. It was a good thing I had my dressage whip to get his attention. You can see his ears back in a few of the photos as he did not like the whip being applied. Ears pinned was the extent of his show of displeasure.
There are a few photos of me with my arm in the air or me twisting my head. These are all exercises to get me to relax my neck and sit taller. Notice that I raised my hand with the dressage whip over Reign Day’s head and he never flinched. I even had loose reins. He is a very sensible horse.
We did some small serpentines to get him to bend. He did these very well. We also worked on halts and backing. We did speed control with just my seat and we worked on walking, almost halting, and then pushing on. This made him more responsive and got him really listening to me.
I finished and got off in the center of the arena and he stood quietly. He even stood without me holding his reins and he followed me when I asked him to. We had a group hug to celebrate a great ride.
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