Grown-up horse days

Tonight the weather was much more pleasant, which meant Alex and I had a lot more company at the barn.  I had a moment where I considered just lunging him and calling it a day... so glad I didn't!

Even through we waited for there to be room in the indoor, there was still another horse/rider combination already working.  I started Alex lunging and he actually went right to work without any nonsense, which is a first when he has company in the arena.  "Hmmm," I thought to myself, "this is interesting."  By the time I was done lunging, the other rider had left the arena, so we didn't get to work with another horse while I was in the saddle.

Since Alex had gotten very comfortable with first few exercises from 101 Jumping Exercises for Horse & Rider, I decided to make a change and set up  Exercise #5 - Two Trot-Poles

There was never even a moment's hesitation, he just trotted through from both directions like it was no big deal.  He didn't even tap either of the poles trying to figure out where to put his feet, just confidently trotted over.  FANTASTIC!  Looks like we'll be moving on to another exercise next time out.  I think he's starting to put it together, because it wasn't just the exercise that went well, it was his flat work too.  MUCH more relaxed and pleasant. 

 

Tomorrow I'm giving Alex a well deserved day off and we'll get back to work on Thursday :-)