Riding Vanna

Finally some videos of me riding Vanna!

I already rode her for 25 minutes so she got tired and ...hm...stubborn. She was doing much better in the couple past weeks. I probably should start riding her again a couple of times with the neck strecher (Halsverlaengerer).

The left side is her good side, she bends nicely and sometimes keeps her head low even on a straight line (well, not today).

The right side is her not-so-good-side. You can tell by looking at her how she bends to the outside when going into a right circle. Plus, she always wanted to canter today (no problem with that) however, she never holds her canter for more than a couple of strides. And she still has problems with turning where and when I want so I kind of dislike anyway a full canter circle in this narrow arena.

Vanna is still a work in progress but nevertheless we already achieved a lot. I started riding her once every two weeks after I came back from Germany in August 2008 and three times a week when my Mom was here in June. And this brought us forward tremendeously. Now I am riding Vanna twice a week to keep her in shape.
When I started, she did not know the cues for canter. She did not want to turn right. She wanted to run to the gate of the arena and just park there.
If the gate was left open, she ran outside with me.
She was a mess.

The pictures were taken by my Mom in June 2009. Vanna holds up her head high into the air that made it difficult to steer her or do anything right with her. I tell you - we were not a pretty looking pair!
But Vana has a good heart and she is almost all the time gentle when being groomed and she has never acted up the 3 times Olivia already was able to ride her!

So we already came a long way from where we started and if I would have ridden her more often she would be already much better. But it is what it is and as long as we are making progress each week -even in baby steps - that works for me!

Thank you BarnChris for letting me ride her!

Anyway, I am happy to have finally a video from me and Vanna so that I can see where she needs more training (well, she needs training in every aspect of riding...what I meant was where she needs training the most).

Any suggestions of my horsy friends are more than welcome!