Roping, Pole Bending, Jumping and Fundamentals

I have worked on a lot lately with my horses. A hodge podge of different things. Switching it up for the fun of it really does seem to do their minds a lot of good.  I rode Moose on Saturday and than again yesterday. Saturday I was really proud of him. A lot of the younger kids were in the arena riding around and practicing poles and making a lot of noise. Normally this would unsettle Moose to no end. When there is a lot going on and he can here crops whipping or people hollering or horses running he usually gets a little panicked. My guess is it reminds him of the track and he tenses up. Saturday he started off a little tense but I just kept him preoccupied. I remained relaxed myself and asked him for a lot of transitions and half halts and getting his hind end underneath him. Keeping his attention on me and giving him something to do seemed to help a lot. He began to relax and even started drooling (as usual :P ) By the end of the ride he was cantering beautifully to the left. Powerful but controlled and stretching long and low. When we went to the right it took a while to get the correct lead but he finally picked it up and settled into a pretty nice right lead canter. Not as nice as the left but it's getting there. After that I did a little more trot work and than walked him out. We walked over a few ground poles but didn't trot them or do any jumps.
Yesterday when I rode him we worked on all the same stuff. He was relaxed from the start as we were the only ones in the arena. He definitely seems to prefer it that way but hes becoming much more tolerant of other horses. The other day during our lesson he lunged at my trainers horse TWICE and I scolded him but not to harsh. I think he does it more out of fear. When they get close he gets nervous. His ears will switch forward and back and he instantly tenses up and sometimes snorts. He hasn't bitten or kicked any other horses but it's not from lack of try.... Oh Moosey... LOL Hopefully he will eventually get over it.
Anyway last night after we warmed up and worked on his trot and canter both ways I took him over a tiny cross rail a few times. We went to the left first which he prefers and he did great. Than we went to the right which was a little sloppy. He never refuses or anything but he will jump it a little to the side I guess I could say and is much more hesitant to the right. I think I'm gonna do a lot more ground poles to the right to build up his confidence. I'll talk to my trainer too and see what she says. All in all though he did well and I was very pleased.



Typical Riley being jealous and typical Moose acting oblivious...



Riley has still been a ball of energy the last week. Last night when I worked him we did all kinds of stuff. First we 'roped' for fun. I SUCK at roping. I think it's a lot of fun but I'm just not good at it. Riley enjoys it and is solid as always but I'm just no good. Still it was fun to trot and lope around and rope stuff. After that I took him through the pulls twice. He certainly surprised me with how well he did. RILEY----My horse who usually hates the poles and often confuses pole bending with bowling---did VERY well! He was a little wide on the end pole to weave back through but other than that he danced between them changing his leads automatically. I was very impressed and praised him a lot.




May with an attractive bite of hay hanging from her mouth LOL

 May on the other hand is starting to calm down a LITTLE. It's an improvement. I have got to get her slowing down with my seat and rating more naturally. It's taken time and will take a lot more but will be worth it. She is a smart girl, just also very hot and very stubborn when she wants to be ;) We only walked and trotted yesterday again. Did some slow trotting and than lots of long trotting with stopping and backing and changing directions.  She did pretty good. Only tried to really speed up twice. Like I said, improvement, that's what matters. It will all come together with time.