Shenanigans!

 Such a silly rascal today! It was a pretty busy day at Ashland. He waited patiently in the trailer while I rode Fleck. I got him ready and decided to join Kerry and Lauren with their ponies. Kerry has a red pony who is the same age as Dan and Lauren has a gray who is 6. They were going for a trail ride but warmed up in the ring. So I hopped on Dan and took him into the ring. Aha... this is where it gets interesting! Danny said "FRIENDS!!!" and was rowdy! I knew it was coming. He didn't want to leave Arwyn and Rasta who were standing by the mounting block. He threw in a few good bunny hops and tried to spin once or twice. Then I got him in the ring and eventually got him moving forward away from Stormy and Pierre. And he was definitely on his tippy toes. Not much forward momentum but plenty of up! I got him trotting in a circle in the far end of the ring and every time we hit the open side he would throw a shoulder and try to go back to the herd. Silly boy! But he wasn't awful. And he sort of eventually settled down. So then we went for the trail ride. He was definitely more interested in playing than paying attention but he wasn't horrid. Things were going pretty well and we managed to get around the lake and to the other side. I offered to let Kerry and Lauren jump the log on the ground. Dan was excited before they even did and as they did, he decided to rear and hop. I actually almost came off but only because when he dropped his left shoulder, instead of spooking to the right, like he typically does, he spooked to the left and twisted. But he came back pretty quickly and I stayed on. So then I made him walk and then trot the log like a gentleman instead of taking off like he wanted. He actually did both quite nice. Of course when we trotted it, he immediately landed and headed towards the ponies. Oh well. I let it go. Picking my battles for the moment.

So then the split off and went to the XC field to play. I decided that Dan was sproingy enough that I wouldn't test playing in the XC field today. I figured it would end with him taking off and dumping me. So... we'll bide our time before we attempt that. And he probably would have been fine just hanging out in the water jump with Pierre while Stormy played, as he's done it before. But he was just a bit up today, so... we were smart. We headed back and did some more trotting in the woods.

Oh, and... his oversize bridle with cob cheek pieces came today. And it fits him perfectly! Even the noseband works! Fleck's oversize one didn't seem to fit him right in the noseband, so who knows. :) He liked his wonder bit though I still tried to make it more of a loose ring. However I think I will need the slight leverage for jumping or cantering in the open field. :)