Equine Valentine

Alex after tonight's ride

 



Hubs and I had agreed to have our Valentine's Day dinner tomorrow when we could cook and enjoy without work the next day.  So I spent some quality time with my equine Valentine tonight :-)

Unfortunately the arena had just been watered (read over watered), but not dragged, so it was a little slick.  I knew this would mean we couldn't do any canter work, since he has just barely started to balance himself when the footing is good.  But I was antsy to move on a little bit and decided we'd just go straight to four trot-poles and see what happened.

Alex started off a little wild... hoping around and being fussy, so I had to work him through that and remind him that I'm in charge.  Once he gave up trying to run the show, it was time to move on to the trot-poles.  There were a few stumbles, a little rushing, but no hesitation and he finally figured it out in both directions.  I know everyone says this about their horses, but he is so darn smart!  Hopefully this will transfer to jumping.... fingers crossed.

After the poles I went back and did a little more trot work, which was really very good.  I would even say there were a few moments of "on the bit."  It was a little bit of a rough start, but the ending more than made up for it!

Tomorrow Alex will have another day off.  Saturday I want to try the trot-poles again and maybe another exercise.  It's supposed to be quite cold here, which will make me want to hibernate, but hopefully we can still get some things accomplished.

Happy Valentine's Day!