Saturday turned out to be a busy day. We got my jumps moved to Alex's farm, into the indoor and out of the weather, which took most of the day. By the time I got to the farm, I had already kinda given up on my plans to get back in the saddle and resigned myself to settling for a good session of lunging. Turns out this was a good plan, because new jumps (even set off to the side) in the indoor are SCARY! Alex spent a good portion of his lunging session gawking at these new "creatures" that had taken up residence in the indoor. He didn't do anything particularly bad, but he did do a lot of bouncing around and snorting. Intimidation tactics? Too bad the jumps don't care how much he bounces and snorts :-)
When he wasn't trying to intimidate inanimate objects, he was stretching really well into the side reins. He is really getting the hang of this self-carriage thing... he loves his endorphins. This is so rewarding to see, considering that when I first started into Alex's retraining he would trot/canter around like a giraffe most of the time. He is going to have such nice movement once he gets stronger and gets over his obsession with everything else going on around him. We were just starting to get to that when this abscess reared its ugly head.
Alex had the day off on Sunday, which I actually think he was rather irritated about. He really does like to work, otherwise he gets bored.
Tonight, I decided I'd lunge him in tack (instead of the surcingle) and see if maybe we couldn't get a ride in, but honestly I wasn't hopeful. Alex was a REALLY good boy despite the fact that the footing in the indoor was not ideal (they had just watered it and gotten a little overzealous). So I figured I was safe to go on and try a ride. There were a few moments when he was a little unsure, but overall, he really surprised me with his good behavior. Hopefully the indoor will dry out a little bit and tomorrow we can do a little more.
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