He's BACK!

 As much as he can be. :) 

   

Today was Dan's day to go to Ashland. He got in big trouble though before we even got there. He stalled on the way to the trailer but at least he peed pretty quickly when he stopped and didn't stop multiple times. But when I went to put the trailer camera up, he smacked me with his mouth in the shoulder. Dude.. that hurts!! I know he didn't bite me... but still.. watch your giant head and quit slinging it at me! I yelled at him and then told him to stop being such a butt! Grrrr. 

   

But then by the time we got to Ashland we had both forgotten and he was decent for being tacked up. It helped that we were chatting to Amanda who was there, so I was distracted and didn't pay too much attention to his snarky faces. If there were any. :) 

   

We headed out and had a great time. He still feels a bit weak/wobbly/sticky in his hind end at the walk. But he was game and walking forward, abeit not as fast as he used to. We trotted a good bit and he feels perfectly fine when he trots. And then, because I wanted to get some cantering in, we cantered. And then we cantered some more. So, we had a lovely hack all through Ashland, aiming for some hills, and we trotted and cantered and walked. I kept the canter bits short and pulled him up as soon as he gave an inclination of wanting to pull up or starting to think about faltering. And his hind end behaved! He even got a little wild hair in one of the fields and took off with me! Not a full out gallop but fast enough that it was a tiny bit intimidating in the bosal! Especially because he put his head down and contemplated bucking. Once I got over the "shock" of it and the split second of "please don't hurt yourself or trip" I relaxed and we had fun and then I was able to pull him up. Glad you've still got it in you sir!

 

  

We went to the lake and splashed but I told him NO SWIMMING. Not with the saddle. And then we walked back. Well, we trotted a tiny bit to make sure he wasn't sore from the gallop, but he wasn't. 

  

Good pony! You've redeemed yourself from earlier. And you're so cute!

 

 

Super Pony

Oh, somebody was FABULOUS today!!!

 

We rode at home and had a good time. I tacked him up with the felt liner pad and the turquoise and black saddle blanket and meh... I don't think it's gonna work. There wasn't any space between the horn and his wither. I don't know if I need shims.. a thicker pad... or it's just not gonna work. So I took it off and put the brown with turquoise pad I bought from Sharon on him. That one seemed to fit him well and he seemed happy in it, so... maybe I just need a thicker pad? I think Sharon has one she's gonna let me try on to see. 

 

We headed up to the arena and warmed up and got to work. He felt pretty good and was fantastic! We did our obstacles and he nailed them perfectly! The livestock pen was marchy and since we had warmed up with some turn on the haunches (and I realized turning left is his happy turn direction) we did a turn on the haunches to go back in and he was lovely! So if we can pull that off it might get us a higher score at regionals. We'll keep playing with it to see. (And hopefully Polly will add Friday to her clinic that filled and I can do that and ask her advice on it). Then we did the switch cup reinback thing and he was perfect! Maybe he could have had a little more march to his reinback, but he stopped square and right on target, back straight and smoothly, and I didn't drop the cup. Good pony! He got a cookie for that. Then we ran through the single slalom and he was lovely. And then we jumped the jump and he trotted it and wasn't stupid. Although he didn't really "jump" it so much as trot it, but... the lesser of two evils I think. We also ran through the drums and he was pretty darn smooth! Another cookie for that! And then he did the gate and the reverse gate quite lovely! Good pony! I do think I need to add some other fun obstacles that maybe are new and different so he doesn't get bored with the same ones. Like maybe some more interactive ones that he can play with. 

 

I also played with the canter. He canters from a smooch consistently now! It's awesome. I also sit back onto his outside hind which helps him lift off too. Since his canter felt pretty decent we played with cantering between obstacles. We did a few walk to canters but I didn't ask for canter to walk yet. But we had fun playing with it. Once he lost his right hind.. it just got hung up behind him. But only once!

 

We also did some leg yields and some regular dressage work at the trot. He felt pretty darn good. Yay!

 

Barebackin' Again

 Daniel was naughty today! I wasn't expecting to ride because it was a big heat warning.. we had cancelled all lessons for the day even. But then.. it wasn't so bad. The humidity was way better, the temps were only as high as 91 (vs 99 yesterday!), and most importantly, there was a lovely breeze. I had ridden Funny that morning but after lunch.. I decided to take Dan out for a hack! Because.. it felt kind of nice honestly. 

He was in the back corner with the girls and they were all a bit sweaty. So I hosed him off before I loaded him up. I let him graze while I turned the hose off and he cantered off down the lane again. POLES! I yelled... as he tripped over them. Then he came galloping back at me, jumping the poles like a bounce-ish. Fool! Then he trotted out the gate and down the driveway and then took off across Art's yard and then down Jean's driveway. DANIEL FLOYD BREAUX!! What on earth!!!?? At least he looked and sounded sound. Sigh... Luckily he got distracted by Jean's horses up by the cabin and was sniffing noses and squealing at them. I was able to catch him and despite the girls screaming and running the fenceline, he kept it together and we got loaded up. Fool!

 

We got to Ashland and I put his bareback pad on and the bosal and off we went. We just meandered around a good bit. He feels sloppy still, but maybe a bit less draggy. We had a good walk and did a little bit of trotting in a few spots. Then I wanted to challenge him just a tiny bit so we got to the smaller hay field with my walnut tree and we cantered some. He picked it right up and felt really round in the canter but after bout 15 strides he swapped behind... and then again. We ended up cantering about 3 times each directin but I kept it super short, like 10-15 strides each time. Then we trotted a tiny bit more and then we went and splashed in the lake. We walked home to cool down, although honestly.. it wasn't too bad in the woods with the shade.

      

  

I do think his topline and posture are looking better!! The shodows make it look a little worse than it is, but I do think it's better!