Another Glorious Day!

Today was another gorgeous day!! Oh I could get used to this weather!! 

I rode Fleck first with Liz and Devon and then I took Dan for a ride with Kelli, Kaitlin and Hannah. We went for a nice hack first. Dan was being goofy in the lead so I made him go in the back. That way I could talk to Kelli first. He was actually pretty darn good in the back. No real antics. We let the two kids play in the field behing halfshire so Kelli and I just sat and talked. Dan grazed and didn't mind that they were off trotting. And then he was good when I made him do some trot circles. Then Kaitlin went for a little canter. I wasn't going to but I couldn't resist. So we cantered off to meet her. And Dan was borderline lazy! He didn't take off or bolt and instead just happily cantered up the hill. Then we turned and cantered back. Kaitlin let me stay in the lead and Dan was a bit goofier. He didn't get fast or anything but he kept drifting towards Spice. But we managed to keep it somewhat sane. After that we continued on our hack. At the end, we all trotted up the big hill. Dan was still in the back and he was trotting quite politely behind Arwyn. At one point he cantered but it was still a polite happy canter. No bucks. :) He's turning into quite the gentleman. :) At least today! hee hee.

So then I had to go and Kelli wanted to head back as Arwyn was being a bit feisty. We headed up the the jump arena and Kelli wanted to play just a bit. They were all still set up for Fleck, so.. there was nothing to jump with Dan. But then I saw the stone wall sitting all by itself. I figured, why not?! So I took Dan to it. Considering he's only 4 and really not jumping a ton and it was a skinny with no standards, he actually jumped it better than I thought the first time. The second time he got smarter and wiggled right, then left, then jumped out right. So... it took a few tries but we finally got him going mostly straight over it. And then he knocked it down, so we just jumped it down on it's side. I tried widening my hands and staying back but it wasn't really helping. Kelli suggested I bring my hands closer together. I asked why because it seems like all the professionals suggest the wide hands and creating the tunnel. Kelli said that she thought Dan was smart enough that he would take advantage of that little bit of space and drift. And she was right. He did. But when I closed my hands together and closed my legs a bit more, he went straighter. And he stayed straighter behind too. Cool beans!! 

 She was laughing at me though because at one point when I made him jump it he did his horrible leap frog thing. I don't know what he does but it's almost like as he jumps, he really bucks up super high behind. He launches me over his head just about. I'm always afraid that I'm going to land on his head, yet somehow I manage to come back down in the saddle. I was impressed I didn't come off. Kelli was cracking up. Goof! I'm glad somebody else saw it though. 

So overall he was a really good kid. :) And it was a fun day!