Love his work ethic!

Oh Danny boy.... such a good kid!

I had a jump lesson with Fleck and took Danny with us to work with him. After I rode Fleck, I took Dan out of the trailer, where he had sat patiently...oh, he's so good! I groomed him and went ahead and put the saddle on him and his bridle and we went to the ring. 

As we got to the ring, a metal trailer came down the drive and made a huge ruckus! Danny got super excited and was like "WHAT Is that?!?!". He spun to look at it and did a few little rears. But he didn't get too rowdy and was easy to maintain control of. I was even able to get him to yield his shoulder and his hind end. And while he was still looking at the trailer, he listened. Then he settled down and we set off to work. The horse then unloaded from the trailer, making another ruckus. Dan looked up and started, but continued to work through. 

I was so proud!!! Any horse, Fleck included, would have started at the noise. And Danny was a little rowdy, but then went right to work. So proud of him!

We lunged and worked on crouching tiger, which he's just about got down pat. We did lots of changes in gait and changes in direction. Then we did some work in the side reins. hee hee. He definitely has an opinion on those, but man is he pretty when he really reaches into that connection! We also did a few steps of canter without the side reins. He's getting it. He understands the upward transition cue but just can't/won't hold the canter.  But that's okay. At least he's not bolting off anymore. :)




He didn't even work up a sweat. Egads.. maybe he's already too fit! ;)

More ponying... different views

I decided to take Fleck to the horse park for a ride today and Dan was hanging out at the gate begging to come, so I took him too. 

 We got there and both boys were groomed. It was starting to drizzle/spit, but what the heck. We are here, might as well. It actually didn't do much more than mist, so we were fine. Both boys were pretty darn good. We even jumped the double logs back by the parking lot. Although I did lose Dan the first time over! Doh... He jumped a little more left than Fleck and there was a pole sticking up so I had to let go of the rope. But we caught him just fine and went back over it and he was great. :) 

A good fun day. I think we logged 3.9 miles today. Not too much, but I don't want Danny TOO fit before I start riding him again. ;) 

 I know this is Fleck... but Danny was too busy chomping on the trees. ;)

Ponying Again... because I'm too lazy to long line

Sad... but true! I've been so busy and I just haven't had the time, or the energy to do some serious long lining. And he's been so good about ponying, so... ponying we go. 

We went on a 3.2 mile ride today and both boys were great! We did a good bit of trotting too. Danny was a bit tired at the end but that might have been from a bit of playing around. ;) 

It was a good day with both my boys. 

Down bank success

So... Dan and I went for a pony ride with Fleck. Danny was pretty good. I didn't have too much time so we didn't do a ton, but we had fun. We finished in the XC field so I decided that since we were there, I should see if I could pony Dan down the down bank into the water. He tends to be just fine for down banks and just fine for going into the water, but trying to go down the bank into the water confuses him. 

So we went into the water and up the bank and he was fine. Then we turned around and tried to go down it. Fleck and I did, and Danny stayed up top. It took a few minutes and some encouragement but he eventually pawed and then hopped down. Yay!! Lots of praise. And right back to it. The second time took a little bit less time and by the third time he only hesitated briefly! Yay!!! Lots of praise. 

And he stood quite nicely for his hoof picking today. :) 

Flying kites.... or baby ponies....

Holy toledo! It was WINDY today!! I started off the morning in shorts, but by the evening it was FREEZING!!! The wind just kept getting worse and worse.
I took both boys to Ashland for my jump lesson. Dan hung out in the trailer while I jumped Fleck and then did a cool off hack in the XC field while Beth jumped. Then it was Dan's turn. As I was trying to pick out his feet, he was dancing around. So I got mad and smacked at him which caused him to really jump and in doing so, he smacked me in the face and then pulled back on his halter. He was pulling back so hard his little front feet were all hanging and buckled. Finally he "walked on' and came back forward and once the pressure was off, he was fine. He had a little scrape on his nose, and I had a bloody nose. Darn pony! After that he stood like a gentleman though. So then Beth was back out in the XC field because a girl who wanted to try Tucker happened to be there. She asked if I was coming to watch, so... I took Dan out there. He was pretty darn good considering how bad the wind was. Only twice did his tail go up over his back and only once did he whirl around. The rest of the time he grazed. Then we headed back up to the rings and did some lunge work. He was REALLY good considering! We worked on crouching tiger and he was doing much better. Or I was ;) Regardless, he and I both are getting the hang of it. We even did a teeny bit of canters again today. He tried to squirt off two or three times but t was only half-hearted. Especially because we're still lunging off the bit. At least until he stops trying to squirt off. :) 

But again, considering it was super windy, he was really good for a baby!

No pictures from today, but we took this last night... Notice the lack of blankets... not so much tonight!

 

Swimmer Swimmer, chicken dinner

So Mr. Dan was naughty today! He called "shenanigans!" 

I took Fleck out for fitness work and afterwards I grabbed Dan to go down to the lake and let him soak. Danny was pretty good getting to the lake and had fun playing. His lead rope apparently wasn't snapped properly because it suddenly came off! So Dan went out for a real swim. Doh! He came right back though and I was able to put his lead back on. So then he splashed around some more and then went for another swim. I let him go that time. ;)
 
 Danny's swim
 Then we were going to head back in and him and Fleck were both being butts so we ended up going the opposite direction and headed away from the trailers down the dam road. We got about halfway down and saw Missy and Marti in the woods. Danny decided to jump around a bit. So...I was about to go back in but decided to hang with Missy and Marty a bit. Danny was good but was trying to play with Zhar. 
 
So then we really decided to head in and he was all prancy. He reared up slightly two or three times and tried to break free, but didn't. We made it back to the trailer and then it was his turn. 

We did some more lunging and worked on "crouching tiger" again. He was good. We even got a few steps of canter. And no running off. Whooo hooo!!

 

More ponying....

Danny got to play today!!! Yay! Finally, he says! I meant to do more but with the rain and icky weather... Wed was the first day.

We ended up heading to Ashland and ponying. We did four miles! Danny started off a little squirrely, but by the end he was mentally and physically settled and calm. I need to remember this when I get back on him! Pony him first so he's settled and gets his "fun" out.

After that, I put him in the trailer and rode Fleck for a bit. Then I pulled Danny back out and did some more "crouching tiger" lunging with him. He was pretty darn good.

Love this guy!