Gotta Love TB Studs!

After work today I went to the barn and decided to take Aragon out since it was quiet in the arena. He was absolutely filthy so it took me over half an hour to curry and brush him. I SHow Sheened him and also brushed out his mane and tail. He was looking pretty handsome when I was done. We walked down to the arena and lunged him for about 15 minutes. He was great and pretty relaxed. I hopped on and away we went trotting around the arena. I especially got after him today with listening to leg aids. Being a typical OTTB he likes to lean in on the turns. I was really using a firm outside rein and inside leg. He started to get the idea without getting too pissy. He is just such a smooth and comfortable horse to ride. I really love him. His biggest problem area was picking up the correct leads on a 20m circle. Right before I would ask for the cangter he would through his shoulder into the circle. SO we kept at it and I made sure to give him lots of praise when he did it correctly. After working on the canter we moved on to trotting jumps. I also love his jump. For having very little training he really uses his back and has a great eye for spots and is extremely light on his feet. He was doing really so I was jumping small lines working in keeping him straight and relaxed. He did really well in this so we would trot in a line and canter the second one. I was so proud of him. Even though all of the jumps were cross rails he did excellent. I walked him out for a while on a long rein and then decided to see if he would walk down the road for a little trail ride.

The really great thing about Aragon is that he is not spooky at all! Even though he can be a little crazy TB stallion, he is brave and really does have a great mind. He walked down the road like a champ and we even had a lous dirt bike go past us and he didn't even blink. We did some trotting and cantering and then walked the rest of the way home. His canter really needs work on the trail as he likes to canter completely sideways, which I teke as a side effect of 8 years on the track. But he wasn't unreasonable and still kept his mind about him. It was just a great ride all in all. He was pretty tired when we got back to I stripped him down and gave him a good grooming, Next time I'll have to get some pics of him in riding gear, he really is such a handsome guy. My hopes this summer with him is to do small courses i nthe ring and do lots of trail riding. It's good for his brain and body to have a job, and I like to think that he kinda likes me too.

As for the guy thing, things are slowly marching on. Greg and I talk on a regular basis and he's having a hard time right now and it makes me feel good that I'm the first one he talkes to about stuff that's bothering him.

Not going to the barn tomorrow since I have to work late. I also rode Possum Tuesday and he was pretty good. We put all the jumps up to 2'9"-3' to mimic that at the show. Our spots were great and his rhythm was perfect but he wasn't quite picking his knees up enough and would just nick them. I don't know if he was having maybe an off day, especially since he was having trouble with his right flying change. I felt that he was putting the effort in and I just let it go.