All Smiles

Ahh what a good way to start out a month of blogging but with a REALLY NICE post about my ponies.

It was quite an icky day today actually, weather wise. It poured and we had to quit our softball game 1/2 way through, but it quit by 7:00, and I was able to plod my way up the hill to see my kids for a nice evening session.

I arrived at the farm, and for some reason my two were separated from the rest of the herd, and grazing in the north paddock. I guess its for convenience sake. My horses are the only two of the 11 that we really dont' need to be concerned about founder with, and the north paddock has 8 inches of grass already, so they get to enjoy it I suppose. Anyway, they noticed me, and Crest decided it would be fun to go for a spin around the paddock with Prin...at a flat gallop. Being that it's spring, they're feeling good, and I wasn't in a particularly demanding mood, I just let them tear around. It was amusing, I've never seen Prin be quite so athletic before, at one point she reared up so high I thought she might fall over, and then took off bucking and farting...yeah...LBI my BUTT...She looks SO GOOD moving like that though.

So anyway, with all that said and done, I plopped down on our multipurpose cast iron tub (pedestal, handy seat when tired, jump...you name it-lol)and hung out. Crest finally quit instigating trouble, and trotted over and hung out by me, with an almost unbearable "PLAY WITH ME!!!!!" look in his eye, so I haltered him up, snapped on the 45' line, and off we went. I really love Richard's place because there's so many obstacles, and the north paddock is best for that. We did some transitions, and just ran around, down and around poles and jumps, the ditch, etc. Crest was LOVING it, because we did it all with energy, and he could just rip around and play, while having to think.

After playing on the ground for about 10 minutes or so, Crest dropped into this lovely round, even trot, and I decided that he looked really good, and that I wanted to try riding him. Now bear in mind, this is the first time in over a week I've played with him, and Crest, in the past, has done better with a fair amount of consistancy in his routine.

I put the 12' line back on him, and hopped on his back. Crest turned his head to check me out, but was by no means "buzzed" and ready to go like sometimes can be. I was curious about this state of mine of his, so picked up my reins, and shifted my weight a little bit to "push" him over to the left, and Crest just walked right into a GORGEOUS sidepass without a fence. WHOA. Talk about a good way to start a session, take the horse who isn't totally comfortable doing a left way sideways game, and have him walk right into it, phase 1. I asked him to go for about 10 feet, and then allowed him to stop, and like clockwork, of course he started to lick his lips, hard core. I asked him to walk out after that, and he did so, willingly.

We walked around a bit, down through our ditch, over some logs and poles, and I was confident and happy, so bumped it into a trot, and we just did a nice medium trot around. His head was low, and he was confident and enjoying himself very obviously. Words CANNOT express how much of a change that is for me. All it took was for Linda to see that DVD and point out how nervous/tight I seemed. And it was so true. I just feel so loose and confident on Crest, even in the MUD, next to an ELECTRIC fence, two elements that used to scare me to DEATH, even on Princess.

I feel like Crest is getting solid enough that I can start doing more than confidence building passenger lessons, and I may actually be able to get L2/L3 productive riding wise this spring/summer with him. He seems confident and solid enough in his impulsion to possibly start some confidence snaffle exercises with him this spring. So that's kind of a loose goal for me.

Ah happiness in the equine department...stay posted for more parts to this story-haha.