Changing it up!

 Today was a fun day! Lessons got moved to Thursday so I met Kimberly and Charlie at the Dabneys to play on the obstacles.  I caught Dan this morning and halfway to the barn he reared up and spun and got loose and galloped back to the girls! Daniel!!! Jean was hauling somewhere and I guess her horses got riled up and then riled up the girls and then... Dan couldn't help himself. I did manage to catch him again and despite him being a bit "up" I kept him in line and got him loaded on the trailer. 

 

We got to the Dabneys and Dan was fine. A little on alert because it was a new place but he settled quickly. Kimberly decided to start in hand and said she doubted she would get on. I tacked Dan up and started him in hand. He didn't care about the things. Except the things he cared about... ha! He was not a fan of the water box but did splash his nose through it. He just didn't want to walk in it. But it's a hard obstacle. And he didn't want to walk in the long skinny puddle. Daniel.. it's WATER!!! You love water you weirdo! He was pretty nonchalant about the other things. Except he got excited when he walked on the teeter totter and when he landed on the grass after he exploded and I almost lost him! So I decided it was time to get on! 

 

He did great. He just marched through the hanging tarps and pool noodles. He didn't mind the mailbox. And he even let me manuever him to do the gate. Although he did "help" me by shutting it the first time. Good boy... it's what I trained him to do! We walked through the zig zag fine but when I tried to back him through it he got all stressed out and his tongue came out. And their zig zag was huge logs, not low groundpoles so he got a little scrambly so... I just opted to not do that backwards today. He walked into the tire, over the pick up sticks, and up and down the bank. He even walked the teeter totter straight on and off, from the down side and the up side! At one point I got him to stop mid teeter totter and was going to see if he would rock it, and.. he kind of did. He started to paw it to try to get it to move and it did for a minute. Good boy! However, he would NOT go into the water box and wouldn't get into the long skinny puddle, although I did get him down the bank almost to the puddle. And he started to stress so... I just let it go after a bit. Oh, and they had stairs.. he did those too. He did the tire pedestal and hung out there watching Charlie for a bit. 

It was fun! So then Kimberly was going to help me tape him so we headed back to the trailers. I did want to show her how he was moving to get her opinion on why he wasn't cantering to the right, so we went into the arena for a few. Their footing is rather deep and then very shallow in one section. He started off hollowed and on alert and before I could get him settled, she was onto us. She told me to try to do "stirrup stepping", which is a Ritter dressage thing. You step softly into each stirrup as that limb comes down. And that creates a soft half halt, in addition to your reins softly half halting. So I did that and it really helped! She did point out that he needed to be a little slower to get better connection. Yep. I know! But we got some nice trot work. So then I picked up the left lead and he was quite lovely, considering we haven't cantered much in a long time. She did say he was dragging that right hind a little. So then I picked up the right lead and... it was actually quite nice compared to the last few times! Like... he didn't feel peg leggy... just weak. And he fatigued and fell out of it pretty quickly. But honestly, I was kind of pleased with that! Kimberly said he looked weak behind, and especially in the right hind. But she also thought his right shoulder was a problem. So... I hopped off and Dan desperately wanted to roll in that arena! Charlie did!! So why couldn't he? Because sir, you have a saddle on! And we're going to Ktape you so you can't be all gritty!

    

But then he was so sweaty and even after rubbing him down with alcohol, the tape would NOT stick to him at all. So I should have let him roll. Oh well. Sorry bubs. I did manage to get him taped when we got home after I had lunch and he had been chilling in the stall under the fans. He was pretty good about it. Although by dinner the tape had gotten tangled in his mane some and pulled off a bit. Whoops! We'll see how much is left by morning.