Great Times!

Not much happening over the last month. Did plunk around the property bareback with the hubby one gorgeous afternoon. Was quiet bliss. What a great horse - sidled up to the water trough with very little encouragment, where an electric fence had just been an hour before, so I could clamour up. I think he's grown an inch or two. Rode in just a halter, and while he did try to take advantage of the more vague communication, I could hoot, boot and hollar to try and get my point across, all without an instant of feeling unsafe on him.

Tonight was a new adventure for us. I've been taking him to a quite sedate riding group on Wednesdays and tonight we joined the rowdies! Four other horses, trotting, cantering, jumping and ripping up the round pen all around him. I did have to employ the rather abrupt one-rein-stop twice to regain his attention, but he really impressed me with how well he settled down with all that distraction. His brain may have been bouncing from one flourish of movement to another, but he really tried hard - especially at the canter! Our first one did include a canon-boom to catch up with the group, which resulted in his nose being cranked to my knee. But the second try was just top-knotch. We pranced right through a cluster of various personalities like old pros.

No pictures of our galavanting, but I did snap one of our young boy. Seems to me he's really growing up. I can't wait for all the ice in the yard to melt away so I can start playing with this boy again! He's been having quite a great time ripping around the pasture with his one-month-older playmate. We have another yearling scheduled to arrive sometime this spring. Bunch o' punk boys decorating my yard. Love it.

Good Times

I think our boys are wintering well...

Been playing around with a friend, taking lessons. Learning and remembering to break things down simpler and work on one thing at a time. Great success with Maximus in this approach! Such as an active walk. Simply getting a good, comfortable stride rather than our pokey amble has been a worthy and rewarding task. I've adopted a dressage whip to reinforce my leg cues, rather than my short bat. I'm very glad to be able to say that a little tap behind my leg goes a LONG way with this boy!