The Transitions

Thursday: Warming up, Spyder was a bit bored. He didn't want to move out, up, or off my leg so we moved on to something that might beabout a bit more exciting... transitions! The trot was slow and steady so the transitions were bound to lift him up. We started one direction with 5 steps of walk, 10 steps of trot, and 15 of canter then came back down with 10 steps of trot and 5 steps of walk to start back up again. I went around about 3 times with that pattern before giving him a break and switching to the harder side.

On the tougher side, we did 10 steps walk, 10 steps trot, 5 steps canter, 10 steps trot, 10 steps walk, and we did this just twice. He was an angel and anticipated each new speed, but I wasn't asking soon enough. Going from walk to trot he wanted to canter, but I was able to slow him to a trot. His canter to trot is a little tough, but it'll get better. Each time we did a transition, it got easier the next time around so I know it was working.

I plan on having a lesson with Danny on Sunday which always seems to help us move along further than I ever thought possible. I hope this one goes as well as the others, and I hope to not get too anxious or nervous! Dom from other posts (and this blog) put me in touch with another rider of a standardbred from SRF. It turns out that her horse and Spyder are related per grandfather (I think? - No Nukes)! She's going to drive down to my house Sunday to head over to the barn for my lesson to see Spyder go. In the beginning of my training, I was right where she is now so it'll be good for both of us to chat and have support for the struggles! :)

Oh, and there was talk on a board on Facebook about bloodlines. I posted a little bit of Spyder's, and Dom let me know this: "Western Paradise is a very famous standardbred sire. No Nukes had a nasty temper but was a brilliant racing stallion. Many of his grandsons make excellent riding horses. His mother comes from Tyler B and Laag lines, both of which are very well bred. Abercrombie was one of the founding sires in the breed." 

There is a book out there that talks about the breed as a sport horse and looks into the lines which I might have to look into getting to read more about the breed. In the near future, I plan to get the links to all of Spyder's lines to see if there are photos available and/or breeding information. I know I came across TB and Morgan when I did a few quick clicks! 

Someone on Facebook told me that grays run on his mother's side... She said, "you have some really good names there -- Albatross, Meadow Skipper, Most Happy Fella, Abercrombie -- Laag is a great gray producer -- and YAY! we're related! Tyler B is my boy's grandsire on his mare's side!" Me, "his mom, "little red light" is called "RED" for short.. but she's 100% gray now!" Her, "well, Arcane Hanover is a Bay and Painted Night is a Roan, which might explain "Red."