An ongoing journal of the re training of my young OTTB Moose and the daily adventures in my life with my horses!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Moose's Monday Lesson

The weather here has been GORGEOUS! Low 70's and sunny! The horses have loved it to, well, for the most part. Some of them don't seem so enthused with their still thick winter coats when they ride. They are starting to shed like crazy though, and for that I am thankful.
I had a lesson on Monday on Moose and he did GREAT! We made a lot of progress with his transitions and started working on leg yields. He was a little confused at first but when he caught on he did fine. One of the things I have really noticed about him is he is a quick learner and when he gets it, he GETS IT! That's both good and bad. Like the other day I turned him out and went to give him his treat and he shocked his self on the electric fence! I felt so bad. Now every time I turn him out he is very wary of the gate and my hand. I have been trying to praise him and reassure him that he is a good boy and the gate nor I are out to get him.
Anyway, (I have a tendency to get off subject, huh?! LOL sorry!) the lesson was good. We continued to work a lot on long and low and stretching down into the bit. I have even been getting him to stretch on the ground with a carrot. At the end of the lesson we set up some cavelleti and than a few small jumps. He loves the jumping and got a little too forward but a few full halts brought him back down again and than he went nicely. We started off with a few small cross rails and than one small vertical and a barrel jump. The first few times he wasn't thrilled about the barrel jump and wanted to go around it. A couple of times though, and he was jumping it like a champ. I could tell at first he wanted to but he was just nervous and not sure. We will probably stay at this height for a while even though I'm sure he could do higher, I don't want to over face him and at this point I know flat work and gymnastics are most important. 
I also rode him on Thursday and will be posting pics and writing (typing?) about that hopefully later today or tomorrow. As soon as my friend who took them is kind enough to upload them.

A short funny story: I ordered Moose some Lami cell jumping boots, the front and back, from Jeffers. I wanted something that was good and worked well but not ridiculously expensive. These boots seemed to fit the bill and the reviews on them were great! (If you or anyone you know has some or has used some let me know what you\they think) Well I ordered them and I don't know if Jeffers ran out of boxes or if they normally do this (though they haven't before to me and I have ordered from them numerous times) but they delivered them in a box that said "Non Spermicidal Lubricating Jelly" all over it.   o.O I almost fell over and died laughing! It was a box that had originally been a box of 72 five ounce tubes of the stuff and I guess they chose to re use it. I don't know but can you imagine what my neighbors and the Fed Ex guy thought! Oh brother....

As for may and Riley their doing good as well. May has been a typical ball of fire but is s-l-o-w-l-y catching on to the relaxing and 'rating' with my seat and voice. I took  her on a trail today just to let her stretch and chill. Riley I have been just exercising and doing lots of trotting to keep him legged up for races. He is the hairiest of my three and shedding the worse! His hair is EVERYWHERE and when he rolls he leaves an imprint of himself on the ground with hair LOL! I should also have some pics of him from the race this afternoon or tomorrow so thanks for reading and stay tuned!

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