The best of the gang today

 Today I wondered if I'm cut out to be a chestnut mare person. Sigh. Dan was the good one. And he grabbed the lunge line about 7 times today. He only got loose once, but... still.  (photos of him and one naughty chestnut mare flirting this morning). 

 

We lunged today. I set up 4 poles on the ground and had my blocks out too so I could do the alternating raised poles. And I put the one cavaletti up on the middle setting. We started out with our pillar walks, walking over the poles and the cavaletti. We focused on pillar 2 a bit more today too. He's really quite good at it now! He had to reach a little bit with the poles set at 3 feet for the walk, but it was good for him. We walked over them alternating raised too. 

 

Then we put the cavesson on and went to do our lunging. I did drop the poles back to regular poles on the ground, instead of raised. Because I wasn't sure if they could be trot poles too. (I know, shame on me, I should know this). Turns out, yes.. they can. And he was a turd ball starting out. Like I said, he grabbed the lead rope about 7 times but I was able to keep up with him and then when he spit it out, I just made him keep going. He eventually (kind of) gave up. We got some nice trot work today though. We aimed on a bit more of a peppy trot and he was getting some good action. Then we did our canters. Just short little stints. I did make him do one full circle going left at least because he kept breaking before doing a full circle. After we went right, we went left again and it got better. The right lead actually looks a little better than the left today still. He just looks softer and more willing to stretch down in the right lead. But the left got better. We did some more trotting and he trotted the poles and the cavaletti a few times. We ended with some nice trot and called it quits. With his walking, it was about 40 minutes of work. And while he wasn't blowing hard... he was working as his nostrils were slightly flared and he worked up a little bit of a sweat. Granted it's February and it's been so warm. Today was like...70 degrees! And not super sunny but a little humid, so.. good boy! Working on your fitness!

 

 

 

 

This morning he was being silly and playing with Emma.