Growing Up so Fast!

Dan was soooo good today! It's awesome that he's growing up and learning but sad at the same time. I miss my widdle baby. But he's a whole heck of a lot of fun. :) 

 He hung out in the trailer for a good 2.5 hrs while I rode Fleck. Oops! Luckily he had a big bag full of timothy/alfalfa, a bucket of water and was in the shade with a lovely breeze. He didn't complain once either. I let him graze while I brushed him and then tacked him up and off we went. 

We hacked around the little lake and then headed to the XC field. I wanted to work on w/t/c in the field. Although it's not necessarily the open spaces that sets him off. I think it's the excitement of others in the field. But... baby steps. ;) And I was the only one there so I didn't have a choice. So we walked and trotted and cantered. He was lovely. He was a little resistant to bend right but once I bent myself right (yep... I MUST remember that I need to bend myself too!) he was better. Then we got both leads multiple times and they were much more uphill. I was focusing on lifting my hips. So then we worked on the walk to canter transitions. It wasn't pretty, but we're getting better. :) And his canters were quite lovely! Still very big, but uphill and lovely. :) Wheee. We did some more trotting and one more canter transition in each direction. Then we headed to the lake for some splash time.

Dan splashed briefly and headed out, so off we went. I was getting hungry so I headed back home. We ended up in the XC field again by the ditches so I walked him past the trakehner. He eyeballed it a bit. I can't blame him. ;) So then I walked him over the novice ditch. Then I thought I might try the training ditch. He walked right up to it and "Whoa!" and stopped. Hee hee. But after investigating it for about 3 seconds, grabbing a bite to eat, he plopped over it. He didn't walk into it, which was probably good, but just hopped over it. He didn't even land in a trot. So then I turned him around and we trotted over it. Easy peasy, like it was no big deal. Yay! So then I turned him back to it and trotted it and then we cantered over the log. Wheeee!! That's technically training level, though it is Ashland, so probably more novice. But still! And what's even better is that he landed politely in a canter and we cantered ever so politely up the hill a bit. I asked for a trot and he came back down and we trotted politely up the hill. :) 

If I could just horse show by ourselves... without all the other competitors, we'd be golden. Ha! We'll get there.

Such a good boy. I let him graze after our ride too.