Love My Horse

My horse is awesome in his own way. He is not super athletic or talented in any huge way. But he loves me and it shows and I love him. I went out to the barn the other night as it was a crazy heat wave of 45 degrees! I got him all cleaned up and shining as much as he can in a winter coat and tacked him up to play with in the arena. He did pretty well. He was especially stiff on his bad side so I tried some shoulder in's and 10 meter circles. After we had a solid flat warming up I trotted him over a few fences to warm up, nothing big or anything. He did pretty well and wa snot rushing anything too badly. It was kinda busy in the ring so we had to pick and choose when and where we were going to jump.

I have to admit that hsi downward transitions really need some work. He'll come down alright but he feels the needs to hollow out his back and stick his face out. Those old habits die hard. Other than that he was pretty darn good. I set one jump up to 3'6" to really work on his form and spots. He suprised me by doing really really well. We were even taking it off a roll back. He was listening reallly well and if I asked him to wait he would. Onle a few times did he rush a little. He was being so good that decided to push it and trot him over it. This was the real test because not only was it pretty high but it was also an oxer. The only time he messed up is when he tried to rush it and I held him back and before he knew it he was crashing through it. I gave him a reprimand of backing him up and making him stand and then fixed it and we hopped right over.

To coll him out I rolled up the stirrups and loosened the girth and took off his bridle and we walked around the arena together. He follows me wherever I go. It's really cool to have that bonding time together. Everyone laughs because when I start running he will too and when I jump over a jump on my feet he'll follow, I just need to make sure that he doesn't jump on top of me hehehe.

So Sunday my roomie and I are going to Dover to get her new saddle. She is pumped. We're going to the barn Saturday because she has a lesson and I'm going to ride Moonshine in the afternoon and start to get serious about the possibility of showing her this summer. So it should be a fun weekend, and plus I have Monday off so it will be extra nice.