Finally a Ride!

It feels like it has been a really long time since I've ridden Trax, but only a week actually.  His tummy is doing much better so after I got my pens cleaned I decided to saddle up.

He was not thrilled about being pulled from his social time in the pasture, and I almost felt bad for him...but then I remembered him throwing me the middle hoof this morning and got over feeling bad pretty quick. When I say throwing me the middle hoof, what I mean is that quite often when I let him out in the pasture he aims a high kick right towards my head. He never gets very close, but I would still rather that he did it the other direction. Stinker!

It was pretty hot today, in the 80's I think, which isn't really hot, but for Feb, is pretty dang warm.  So with that in mind I didn't think we would ride all that long, but then as we got going and things were going well, I just kept with it for a good 2 hours.

We started with just standing still. I would pick up on the reins and wait for him to drop his head.  Sometimes I had to wait him out but eventually it was his first choice so I called it good.   Then we went to work on the things that I learned from BEC and at the clinic.  I think we made some progress, but anymore I just don't know.

I will say that once I let him have his "run wildly around the arena time" things really started to seem to progress.  We worked on those long low trots and  I can tell the difference just in the way I bounce. The less bounce the better he is moving.

We worked on stops and the beginning process of lead changes. We worked on our spins and roll backs as well.  He did give me a couple of full spins, but they aren't actual spins. He can do them from a stand still.  So really it is more like 360 roll backs. LOL  But he wasn't coke bottling so I won't complain too much.

We also did the gate. For a horse that used to hate working gates, he sure does love them now.

He really seems to be trying to get this stuff right...most of the time.  The only time he seems like he is just being a butthead is when we work on the real spins.  Today I got that long and low trot and then kept tightening my circle, but I can tell he is expecting it and pretty soon he falls backwards when trying to give me that step. I don't know if this is a by product of me teaching him to spin from a stand still, or what.  But I just cannot seem to keep the forward momentum.

He did give me some great stops at a lope today, well great for him.  He is still stopping on the front for those.  At a trot I am figuring out how to get the hind end to be the stop, but I think I haven't got my timing down right for the lope yet.

All in all it was a pretty good ride and I was not unhappy with our progress.   He got a nice hose down, a roll in the sand and back to the pasture with his herd.

Sassy was out there with one of her boots turned completely sideways!  I don't know how she does these things!

Now it is time for me to go get a shower. TC is taking me out to dinner for V-day.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.