I didn't get to spend quite as much time "jaunting" with Dan this morning as I wanted, but that's okay. He did great. I apparently either turned my alarm off or never set it because I woke up late this morning. And since Fleck and I had a dressage lesson in Athens at noon, I only had so much time. I ALMOST went back to bed. I'm tired! But, I figured it would be too hot later, so I manned up and went and grabbed Danny. He loaded up pretty quickly! He won't go in with me just sending him, but he now follows me in and stays instead of backing up as I go out. So yay! Then we headed off. He got a quick groom and we tacked up and headed out. Since I was short on time, we headed straight out to the XC field. He was pretty darn good and much more forward today. We hit the field and he walked over two logs well. Then we went to the bank and he went up and down quite merrily. Then we went to the ditches and he was a little balky at the first one but then crossed over the fake ditch both directions without hesitation. Then he walked over the real ditch both ways fine and then, he even walked/jumped over the Novice ditch like a champ!! He was eying the training ditch but I told him not yet. The we walked past the trakenher and his eye balls got really big! Ha ha.. No, no... not yet. So then we went to the water complex. He snorted at it at first but then bravely walked in without much encouragement needed. Then we walked up both banks. But he still is not quite sure about walking down the banks into water . Which is odd to me... as he doesn't mind the water and he goes down the regular banks quite happily. I tried a few times but then gave up for today. So then we trotted a log on our way to the woods and then walked and trotted merrily through the woods. About half way to the lake we ran into the horse flies. They were bad, so we trotted the rest of the way to the lake.
Danny got to splash around a bit in the lake and then we tacked back up and hit the path for home. The horse flies were suddenly HORRIBLE! Dan was bucking and cantering and even kicked out because there was about 7 on him. Poor kid. I managed to keep him under control and even got him walking flat footed again but they wouldn't leave him alone. So we alternated between trotting and walking and hit the open field as soon as we could. Then we had to head home. He was better for his bath and loaded great.
Another fun day with him. He just cracks me up. Such a goofy kid.
