It was taken in April of this year, from a weekend spent at Stephen's house. I loved the angle, was very happy with my equitiation, and loved how relaxed and in sync we looked! I was thrilled with it!
Although Sonny is tracking up in the above picture, he is heavy on the forehand and is still hollow. He is tracking up better in the second picture than the first, but still not using his body correctly.
This photo was taken with under 5 rides playing with the game of contact:
I don't know about you, but I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw that picture. My fat, downhill, long bodied, lazy, unathletic, stocky paint horse looks like he is balanced and using his bosy correctly....wait, what?
Although it isn't perfect...yet, I still can't believe he changed so much so fast! I never knew he could more forward into the contact. In fact, I never realized that any horse could. I rode and trained dressage for about 7 years and have always pushed horses into the contact. On the contrary, Sonny, himself, moves into it. He offers it because we have a mutal understanding and respect. There is no hassle, no fight, no struggle to get him to take the contact; it's just there. And it's beautiful, and of course, natural. It has never felt so fabulous to me before.
I am so pleased with how far he has come in such a short time, I will definitely be adding pictures as we go on!
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