Thursday, November 13, 2008

Officially riding on our own!


So Tuesday night we started with that usual. Lunged, ponied at a walk and trot, then unclipped the lead from the pony horse and followed a bit. Then we took the leap: we walked away from the other horse! He still kept looking towards the other horse, so we ended up circling back, but kept right on going until our circles grew big enough that we were at the rail. The other horse helped us get into a trot, but then we continued around on our own. It took him a few times before he realized we could trot around the corners (or even turn at all). The first time we trotted straight down the wall he just stopped when he head came to the wall that he was facing. Funny guy! So we kept on going and I tried to help him out by looking around the corners and telling him in advance what we'd be doing. Then we did some turns against the wall, and finished with a stop and back! All really simple, and so he's still super happy to do his job! Such a sweetie...


Then he got his vaccination booster afterwards so I gave him Wednesday off... no reason to make him think that its my fault he's sore. I'll just let him think he slept wrong!


We're off to watch a horse show together this weekend. So we'll see what he thinks of crowds and the "schooling show crazies". I can say it, because I'm one of them! So based on the potential chaos, I'm really only planning to lunge him. And we'll only do that if there's a place available which will depend greatly on the size and quantity of warm up area. But its a new facility, so I'm excited to check it out and watch a bit of jumping and dressage. So even if he just experiences walking the show grounds and being tied to the trailer with all the commotion, it will still be excellent experience. Should be fun!

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