Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Come again....well not here for a while! :D

I rode the Moose yesterday and he did fairly well. It started off a little rough but ended very good. I knew he was gonna be hot and forward since I hadn't rode him in about 4 days. It didn't help that is was cool and windy. Still, I tacked up anyway knowing today would be nothing but rain. I started off at a good stretchy walk trying to get him to relax and pay attention. I asked him move off my legs and stretch into the contact. He was fine other than feeling strong and wanting to trot prance the entire time. Finally we picked up into a verrrrry forward trot and I kept him light and responsive but didn't ask him to get on the bit. I just let him go around like a giraffe and get his energy out as long as he wasn't pulling on me. After about five minutes of that both I asked him to stretch into the bit. At first he wanted to fight it but a few full halts and he became soft again and than we had some nice 'long and low' trotting both ways. He was a lot stronger to the right than the left but I think he has just gotten too much into a habit of trotting to the right and than going into a canter to the right so I did some transitions and changed directions a few times to get him to quit anticipating and pay attention.
He picked up his right lead the third time I asked which is great. He has always been pretty hard to get on it but he is getting better and more balanced, so more comfortable on his right lead. He was still a little strong to the right but eventually he softened and went nicely. To the left he was a perfect little angel and his canter was great. Even when we transitioned down he stayed soft and responded fluidly. We did some more leg yields and than I let him walk on a loose rein for a few minutes before we headed to jump. The last two times I had ridden him we only flatted so today I was gonna let him jump. We jump some what often but not a lot when we do and once he becomes more experienced and used to it we will only jump once a week (maybe less depending on what my trainer says) to preserve his joints. I set up some trot poles and than a small barrel jump. He is really good with the barrel jump now and handles it like a pro. I'm so happy he seems to enjoy jumping so much. He is eager to go to the jumps but rarely gets too strong and isn't hard to handle. Even when we are warming up away from them he always wants to go towards them and he perks his ears so cute when we do. After a couple small jumps I set a jump using one of the barrels upright, and a tall cone. It was the highest I have ever asked him to jump. He went towards it fine but last second wanted to go around it. I could feel he wanted to jump it but wasn't sure. I patted him and told him he was doing good and we went over the smaller jump first before approaching this one. The second time he sailed over it like a champ but clipped it with his back foot an knocked the pole down. I set it up and we went over it one more time and again he clipped it but barely. We stopped there because even though he knocked it down he tried very hard and obeyed when asked to go over it. It was almost a 3 foot jump which is big to us. I praised him a lot and cooled him out. I can't wait to do another lesson next week. This weekend I have one on Jubil, the 'steady eddy' horse and than Monday I hope to do one on Moose. I am so proud of how he is progressing, it seems so fast than sometimes I worry I am going to overface him but he takes it all in stride and I don't plan on doing anything more challenging for a while, or at least until he is completely comfortable and confident at the level we are at.

I rode the Ri man on Sunday and Monday and just exercised him. Lots and lots of long trotting. We did some rollbacks and some sidepassing just to change it up and keep him light on his feet. He was great as usual. There is a race this Saturday and if it doesn't get rained out I will likely just take him. Monday I rode him bridless with a bareback pad and we just rode around the arena by ourselves for a while. It had been a stressful week and it was nice to unwind and relax with my best friend in the entire world.
May is coming along a little by little. I dewormed her yesterday and she promptly spit a big glob right on my boot so it looked like a bird crapped on my boot or something LOL Silly mare but I love her to death. I have been trail riding her a lot to help her relax and switching it up a lot in the arena. It seems she does better on the pattern with lots of routine and consistency but better with everything else when you switch it up a lot so we have practiced about once a week than the rest of our rides are just exercising her on the trails or working on stuff in the arena: side passing, leg yields, rollbacks, lots of trotting and slow loping to take the edge off. I'm  hoping to take her to the barrel race in April. Maybe after these last few months of working on her rating will finally pay off.