I have always loved doing arena work and training in an arena, probably because I haven't had much access to many nice arenas. My riding education was mostly learned on trail rides; not many of the people I knew were into showing, so I was pretty much on my own with that. However, there are many horses out there who are solely trained for show, such as dressage horses, jumpers, hunters, and Western show horses. All they ever see is an arena, and although this is the preferred way of training ...
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Last night I rode Sierra again and we worked on bending / circles and picking up a balanced, consistent trot. She is getting better, but still needs a lot of work. She has never really been asked to trot other than on a trail, so she doesn't really know how to keep a consistent trot. By the end of our lesson though, she was much more balanced and I could keep her trotting. we also worked on moving away from leg pressure, and I think she will be pretty good at that!
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I have now ridden Sierra a few times and have decided to establish a training plan, starting with step 1 (the training of Maggie and Blue, my friend's horses, is indefinately postponed due to the fact that I have no extra money for gas!). Sierra has been ridden a lot on trails, has been camping, and has been hauled by herself, but has no formal or basic training. Due to this fact, and because she likes to be a little lazy, she doesn't respond very well to walk/trot/canter cues and doesn't giv...

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