Growing up

 Wait a minute!!! When did the baby horse get so big!!??

We went to Beth's for a lesson and we worked on our leg yields today. We started off and he was a bit excited. We were warming up and circling the ring and he was being good but I could tell that there was some excitement coming. Beth just asked "Has he stopped bucking then?" when he leapt out! Hee hee. He really has gone quite a few rides without bucking, but I could feel it coming. But he's a good kid (or a lousy bucker) and they were easy. We put him to work and he settled quite nicely. We started off with the spiral in and out game and I had to focus on riding both sides of his body. He had to spiral in and out evenly, not falling in or out. It's harder than it sounds! Especially when he has his moments of feeling like I'm riding an octopus!

Then we did some leg yielding work. I bragged about how good he was and then of course we had issues. He's really good at only a step or two at a time, but when we tried to do centerline to quarterline, it was tougher. Especially going to the left. That's really hard for him. So we worked on it and I had to focus on keeping him straight, and using his hind end. Beth said I could even use the whip to tap his hind end over to help him understand what I was asking. Then we did a tiny bit of canter too. After I finished, we did some in hand leg yield work. Beth showed me how to use the rail to help him figure it out. He definitely has a harder time coordinating his body that way. Guess he may need an adjustment too. :) He was a good boy though and kept trying. :) We're making progress. He's going to be such a nice horse if I can manage to not screw him up!