Two-Point: Feel the Burn

Last night, I rode figuring I'd get things in order for the 4-h open show Sunday. Spyder had a decent consistent pace at the trot, but wanted to keep stopping and being lazy (until two-point came). Again, no spurs, but he was moving off of leg, and he was forced to listen per my "I'm not putting up with this" attitude. We did circles until he wanted to stay in "go", and then we moved on to two-point exercises (go is exciting to him here). I REALLY need to work on my leg as my right leg is SO must weaker. If I ride and tell myself to step down in to it, it can come close to my left heel, but it's still a bit off.

Trotting in two-point helped a lot and proved to me that I am out of shape. Trotting for three strides posting then two-point for three strides is not the most fun, but it's a great way to get your heels down. You would think that Spyder was a TB in his previous life because every time I would get in two-point, he would canter. I'm not sure if that's because he was like, "Oh, you're doing something different, I guess this is what I do?" OR if he was just like, "Yay, you're off my face, let me go." He was VERY good about his canter, and it was quite controlled. I would sit up in two-point to get him to slow rather than pulling on the reins, and it worked well! He figured out that I wasn't asking him to canter and was very happy to keep on trotting. That transition is definitely coming along, but I wish the canter was better so we didn't have to stick to walk/trot classes. We'll get there, I just have to be patient.

Tonight, I am going to ride with a girl that feeds at the barn that trailers in to ride. She borrows a pony from the woman that helped me get the equestrian club going at college, and I even looked at the pony to free lease out for a while. She's a cute little thing that will jump the moon. I rode her in a judged trail ride (last year? maybe the year before?), and her name, Sassy, fits her attitude at times. We might be swapping so that K can ride a standardbred and I can canter on a "normal horse." I'm excited that it seems to be working out for me in terms of getting new types of rides in, and this trailer is going to really open a whole new window of fun.