Settling In

Stitch was back to his normal self after spending his first night out with his new herd. No more baby dragons!

Tuesday gave us a change in weather and it was finally bearable to be outside. I wandered around the property with Stitch in-hand. There's not really much to do or explore out there in the winter as everything is covered in snow.

We went into the barn and he parked in the grooming stall for what is possibly his first time in cross-ties. There was a bit of fidgeting, some pawing, and screaming if I went back to my locker and went out of sight, but he didn't test the cross-ties too much.

The pawing makes me scream inside, but I'm trying to ignore it in the hopes that he stops if it doesn't get him any attention.

We did a quick walk in the arena, during which Stitch stared at himself in the mirrors at every opportunity.

This barn has the rule that you have to pick your horses feet out when leaving the arena. Standing still long enough to get all four feet done turned into a 15 minute challenge, not helped by my chatting with someone waiting for the vet with a suspected case of laminitis in her senior horse (sadly, we were right).

The next day Stitch was much more relaxed right off the bat. He walked across the field to meet me at the gate when I called him as he typically does - this field is bigger than his old one so I was happy to see that behaviour continue!

The grooming area setup.

I moved him to the grooming stall that he might be able to see me when I went down the to my locker, and he was much quieter than the day before, but it was probably because there was a horse in the stall just in front of Stitch.

The arena was free so I took him in for a lunge. It was a good challenge for him - he had to go into a new place with the expectation that he pay attention and behave nicely, he had to keep going forward while staring at himself in the mirrors, and for the first time I mostly lunged him in the center of the ring instead of using one of the ends with walls around three sides. He mostly got his trickier left lead without needing to really set him up for him,  which is definitely progress, but he struggled a bit staying on the circle.  His canter seems different every time I lunge him; this wasn't one of his strongest nights.

"Who is that gorgeous creature?"

Oh - and he nailed the hoof picking on the way out. Stood rock still. A little bit of exercise does a brain good!

Overall, I've been really happy with how he's settled into his new home. The weather was beautiful and he was out nekkid and I was happy to see lots of dried slobber marks on him, which hopefully means he's been socializing with the other boys.

New Friends

Stitch spent the first five days of living at the new place feeling pretty sad and sorry for himself in his quarantine pen. There are horses in paddocks on two side of his pen, but they are separated by a road so obviously not able to be in contact with.

He was bored and lonely. And it was far too cold for me to be able to spend much time with him when I came out in the evenings. The first night was -31C, the second -17 plus a windchill. It warmed up to a balmy -14C on his last night in there so I was able to spend a whole 45 minutes doing things with him, mostly involving shoving cookies in his mouth. He thought that was the best time ever. 

A very frosty pony.

On Monday afternoon he was declared cootie free and able to leave his jail cell. I was off work early that day, so I rushed out to the barn mid-afternoon in the hopes that I could turn him out into the pasture and have him meet his new friends while there was still some daylight. 

It started out ok - it's a decent walk from his quarantine pen on one side of the property to the pasture on the other side. Stitch walked nicely next to me, taking his new surroundings in. 

When we got to the pasture I saw that someone was out there trying to catch a horse that didn't want to be caught. I thought it would be very mean to that person to add a new horse to the mix, so we were just going to wait at the gate until the horse was caught before turning Stitch out. 

And then Stitch showed his true colours. My quiet, well-mannered 3 year old is really a baby dragon horse in disguise.

While we were waiting to go into the pasture, the horses in the surrounding pens started to get a little silly. Between the new horse and the uncatchable one, they had plenty of reasons to start getting prancy. 

I think Stitch could have managed that okay, but what did him in was the horses that got prancy behind the row of parked trailers that lined the road to the pasture. Once the first horse suddenly pranced into view in between the trailers, Stitch had feelings.

I'll give him full credit for keeping his front feet on the ground, though there were a few times he was definitely thinking about getting light in front. His go-to move was to bulge his left shoulder into me and try to scoot off, which we had a few discussions about. It's real fun having those discussions on a packed snowy road that you have no traction on!

There were so many snorts. The "oh, this is where I die" types of snorts. So,so many.

But, we got through it without me getting jumped on. The horse got caught, the silly horses got bored, and Stitch finally got to go out to meet his new friends. 

The field is all geldings, and they were a mix of "yay someone new!" and "is there something going on I should leave the hay for?". Stitch quickly figured out who wanted their own personal space (only one gelding), and within an hour of being out I saw him playing a tentative game of bitey face with someone. When I went out the next morning he was sharing one of the round bales with someone, so he seems to be well on his way to finding his place in the group.

And most importantly - there is only one new hole in his blanket that I have to repair. 

Moving Day

We've moved! Stitch is at his new home!

The TLDR version is that Stitch travelled well and mostly settled in quickly. He'll be in a quarantine pen for at least 5 days before going to the big field and meeting his new friends.

I had planned to take a bunch of pictures, but the only I one got was of Stitch in his quarantine jail cell.

Here's the full version of how the move went:

First of all, he had to have a booster shot for the strangles vaccine that the new facility requires. I had scheduled it for the day before we were moving, on Dec 31st, at noon, for which I received a confirmation email two days before the appointment.

Pony was in just before 12. At 1pm, i figured I might as well go hook up the trailer while I was waiting, and I'd shoot her a message at 1:30 if she hadn't arrived.

There was a bit of difficulty getting the trailer hitched up - the trailer was parked before the snow arrived, so it was sitting on bare ground, but the truck was on a layer of snow and ice and sat higher than it normally would. I had to crank the front of the trailer up all the way so that it would clear the ball, and even then it was a little reluctant to connect properly. But I thought it was on enough that I could pull it forward and once I straightened up it would be ok, and thankfully I was right.

After that I sent a message to the vet to confirm if we were still on for the afternoon, and quickly got a "Crap. Be there in 30." message.

Turns out she's been pretty sick and told me to stay away from her so that I didn't catch her cooties. I guess I shouldn't complain too much about the sore throat/hoarse voice/tiredness I had for a few days after Christmas.

Stitch wasn't as good for his jab this time, done on his butt. I think he was anticipating that a thermometer was going to be put where the sun doesn't shine, which he was protesting after his first jab. 

But he got done, and I spent another couple of hours packing my stuff up.

I have a lot of stuff.

Too much stuff.

I downsized somewhat after I went down to one horse this summer, but not nearly enough. That's come back to bite me in the ass now that I have to move it all.

My dad was coming with me on the day of the move, so we loaded the rest of the stuff mostly into the bed of the truck. It pretty well filled it. Plus one side of the trailer and the tack compartment. (It was mostly blankets. I didn't realize how many blankets I had out there.)

I don't know that I've ever trailered in the winter. We got lucky in that the forecast changed from an expected high of -20 C (-4 F) to a balmy -14C (6 F). Totally bearable. But it still brought on some problems.

Tire air pressure. It drops in the cold. Each tire was 8-10 psi lower than ideal. So they had to be pumped up. Note to self- buy an extension cord that will reach from the cab of the truck to the back of the trailer so that when the air compressor that says it has a full charge turns out to not have a full charge and you can still get the job done. Thankfully, I was able to grab a cord from the barn and get the tires pumped back up.

Metal contracts or expands when temperatures change. This affects things like butt and chest bars that don't have a lot of wiggle room to get into their fittings. We didn't have to actually make any adjustments, they just didn't go into place as smoothly as I would have liked.

In these temperatures, anything wet freezes quite quickly. Like poop. Or condensation. And when ice forms in, say, the hinges of the ramp, it doesn't want to close properly. It was fine when we left, so I suspect it was either moisture from the poop that happened immediately upon getting on the trailer, or just condensation from him being on there. My dad is the kind of person who is always prepared and had a Leatherman tool that had a very efficient saw type of knife that was able to chip away at the ice and we were able to put the trailer up with no issues. 

Stitch was pretty good about getting on. I wouldn't say he jumped on, but he didn't go backwards at all. There was a little bit of tap dancing while I shut everything up but he travelled well. The side roads were packed snow and bumpy, but the highways were clear and not busy. I fully expected that he was going to be a sweaty mess when we arrived but to my surprise he was nice and dry.

He went straight into his quarantine pen. There are horses visible on two sides, but they are separated by a road. He seemed to settle in fairly quickly. There was some calling and a little bit of trotting, and I had to put a halter on him to change his blanket, but he tucked into his hay right away and finished the alfalfa cubes I had put in the trailer for him that he didn't eat on the drive. 

This place takes biosecurity very serioulsy. I can't go into the barn after being out with my horse, and I'm not allowed to move his stuff into the barn until he's been cleared.  That's going to suck over the next few days as I'm going to be out in the evenings and the temperature is going to plummet. It'll be quick trips to check on his blankets and give him his pellets and not much else. The cold is supposed to end just as his quarantine is supposed to end. 

So, there's nothing exciting happening (hopefully) for a few more days, but the move is done and I can stop stressing about it. 

New Year, New Places

There hasn't been much happening in our neck of the woods. Winter arrived with a vengeance, bringing a bunch of snow, freezing temperatures, and when it did warm up, freezing rain.

It's going to be a long winter.

When I arrived at the barn on Saturday morning the geldings were being quite rambunctious. I'm guessing that that was when Stitch's blanket took a hit because it was perfectly fine when I put him out the night before. The industrial sewing machine came to the rescue. Also, Phantom's 75" blankets now fit him quite nicely.

But there are some changes coming up.

Stitch is moving to new digs.

The original plan was to move him in the spring. Since I'm not riding over the winter, I figured I could manage one more winter without a heated arena, and that we'd move when I was ready to start riding him again. One of the things that I want to be able to do is get him out of the arena regularly, and it's a bit tough to do that at my current location. I could pay to use the neighbouring facilities trails, but for reasons, I don't want to.

With the early cold this winter, I have been lamenting the lack of heat in the arena. It's been too cold to even spend too much time standing in the middle while I encourage my horse to run around loose. My face starts to hurt after about 15 minutes.

Look who's almost looking level again!

There have also been some changes to who is using the facility that I'm not in love with. I understand that the owner needs to pay the bills, but I'm not down with how this new "trainer" appears to operate.

Thus, I made the decision to leave sooner than planned.

The plan is to move on January 1st, weather permitting. If the roads are crap then I'll hold off a few days. 

The new place has a much more stringent biosecurity protocol, so Stitch had to get some booster shots last week and another just before we leave.

I know that the lighting is different, but winter Stitch face is much darker than summer Stitch face. It's much more multi-toned.

My farrier was out today and she'll be good to continue with us at the new place, although if that doesn't work out long-term there are two other fantastic farriers that visit regularly - one of which is my old farrier and the other was my current farrier's mentor. So no worries there!

My biggest concern is where the heck am I going to put all my stuff? The lockers are an ok size but much smaller than the space I've been working out of for the last few years. My trailer will be serving as back-up storage, but it's not that big and anything stored in it needs to be able to be removed when I haul.

The next couple of weeks will be spent trying to get my stuff sorted out and ready for the move. The weather is supposed to be fairly mild starting this weekend so I need to buckle down and get most of it done next week. 

I think you have a little something on your face.

Then off to new adventures!

Winter is Here

I did get the third planned ride in on Stitch a couple of weeks ago, but it was rather blah after the previous two rides. He wasn't bad or anything, just may have been feeling the effects of three days in a row. He wasn't as forward or responsive to my leg as he had been. No worries, it's a long process, and over those three days I got done what I wanted to.

Even if I hadn't decided to just do those three days on him, Stitch still wouldn't be getting ridden because it's now winter. 

Like, full on, January temperatures and snow type winter.

Oh, what I wouldn't do for a little global warming at the moment.

Not quite sure if the kid has dark dapples in his coat or not. His face sure gets a lot darker in the winter!

To the surprise of probably no one, my horse is now sporting a mid-weight blanket and hood while grazing from the never-ending hay buffet.

I know, I said I wasn't going to blanket him.  But Saturday we got about 10" of snow, and then temperatures plummeted. I couldn't take the blanket off after wearing it for the snow when it was going to be so cold. I'm talking feels like -28 C temperatures for a couple of nights (that's -18 for you non-metric people). 

That's not usual for this time of year, and the horses don't have their full winter coats yet. That's how I'm justifying it to myself.

On Tuesday night I threw an assortment of blankets and liners into my car in the hopes that some combination would work. The kid has grown (and is still growing) but his chest hasn't filled out yet, so some of the bigger sizes are a little too saggy in the chest - or at least they were the last time I tried them on him.

Phantom's 75" Amigo was what I hoped would fit him, and it was actually pretty good on his chest, so that is the top layer. The hood is a little long, but it's not covering his ears so it's more than doable. 

I was surprised that the Greenhawk 100g liner fit way better in the shoulders than I thought it would. They fit Cisco's broad chest much better than Phantom, so I thought it would be way too big on Stitch. I also tried on a Lemieux liner that I thought would be smaller, but it was actually bigger, so the Greenhawk liner was the winner. The length on all of these was fine - a bit of room to grow, but the next size down might actually be too small.

There's still a couple of inches to fill out before I start panic buying him a new wardrobe.

I'm a little disheartened to say that I think I need to start looking for deals on 78" blankets. I think he's going to outgrow my extensive 75" wardrobe. (How much did your horse's blanket size change after he was 3?)

Stitch is going to be wearing his warm jammies for a few more days. We're supposed to get back to much more normal temperatures next week, at which point he can go out nekkid again.

At least until the next cold spell... 

Breakthrough!

Stitch has had his 20th ride. And it came with a little bit of a breakthrough!

The ride consisted of mostly walk again. The extent of the trot was a long side, big circle at the end, and another long side each way.  Nothing exciting. He felt slightly less downhill than the day before, but he was really stretching his neck out for his balance and felt like he was using too much of his underneck. No need to promote moving in that posture.

What I was excited about, was that this was the first ride where I felt that I was able to apply inside leg on a turn and he was able to stay bent around it and move away from it at the same time. Up until now, he had figured out how to turn off my outside leg, but would fall in if I asked for a bit of inside flexion.

Since he now is starting to understand inside leg, I started asking for the first time for a bit of contact and flexion. Nothing strong, just starting to give him the idea. It was all at the walk and I don't to mess with the forwardness.

Oh - I lied. We did one other thing at the trot. 

After yesterday's eagerness to do some walk/trot transitions, I wanted to see if he understood going forward in the trot off my leg. 

The first long side attempt he kind of went "uh, what?". The second side - he was all "I got this". He increased the pace and kept the rhythm with mostly just my leg (I think I clucked once). That was where we ended the ride. 

The next challenge will be trying to get the same inside leg reaction at the trot. That's going to take forever at the rate at which we are going!

 

Stll Thinking Forward

Okay, I know I said that Stitch was done for this year and was on his winter break.

But I managed to get a rare four days off in a row this week, and last week he was looking pretty balanced again. So I figured I would hop back in the saddle for three or four rides.

Stitch was lunged on the weekend with a saddle on as prep for my mid-week ride. There was a little bit of sass - there was one kick that was definitely aimed at a dangling stirrup, but the butt-tucked-underneath-him-scoot at the canter was probably due to the cool weather. Or so I hoped.

The plan was to take Monday off from the barn as per normal, and then lunge him again and practice at the mounting block on Tuesday so that getting on on Wednesday wouldn't result in any surprises. But that didn't go to plan after I spent an unplanned 12 hours at work o Tuesday on very little sleep and spent the evening clunked out in bed.

Thus, I hadn't put as much prep into Stitch as I had hoped. It's only been a month since he was last ridden, but he's only had a total of 18 rides. Not enough time that everything about being ridden is been there/done that for him.

I'm not that stupid, so before getting on on Wednesday I popped him on the lunge line first for just a few minutes. He was super boring so after a quick trot and canter it was time to hop up.

Again, I wasn't stupid, and had my mom there to hold him at the mounting block. I wasn't sure how easily Stitch would come to the block as the last couple of rides before we stopped he was a bit fussy about it and I haven't practiced it since. To my surprise he eagerly lined himself up, so eagerly that he stumbled over top of it, knocking me off and moving the block about 10 inches. He gets an A for enthusiasm.

He stood perfectly still and relaxed for me to get on. I had my mom lead him the first few steps, but having a leader and me on his back trying to steer seemed to confuse him so I quickly had her unclip the lead and let us free.

I couldn't get any post-ride pics with his ears forward. Guess he wasn't impressed about being back under saddle.

I had absolutely no agenda for this ride. If we only walked, I was going to be perfectly happy.

For the first couple of minutes, Stitch felt a little unsure about the weight on his back, but it didn't take too long before he relaxed and started to wak more forward. 

I decided to try a trot. I gave a little nudge with my heels and clucked - and Stitch slammed on the brakes. Oh no.

I tried again on the long side heading towards the gate and he picked it up right away. He trotted nicely forward and we did a whole lap before I asked him to walk. And then we went the other way and did an even better lap.

I was happy to leave the trot there because homeboy is feeling rather downhill at the moment. He didn't feel this way in September, so yeah, I'm pretty sure he's bum high again.

But Stitch had other ideas and broke into the trot when I asked him to walk forard. I didn't want to squelch his desire to go forward so we did some walk/ trot transitions with him going from a lighter and lighter aid. I added a quick turn on the forehand off both legs, and ended the ride.

All in all, I was super happy with him. My hope was that he would continue the forward thinking that we had been getting on the last few rides , and happily he did.

The plan is to do two more rides this week. They will probably be just as short and sweet since he's feeling so downhill, but that doesn't bother me. Then, depending on how high his butt is at Christmas, I might do a few more days in the saddle when I have some time off again. Provided it's not freezing cold, of course!

Catching Up

 I fell off the blogging wagon again, because, well, nothing's been happening.

In what seemed to be just a couple of days, Stitch had another growth spurt in mid-October. On the Wednesday my mom and I both looked at him before I tacked up and said that he was looking pretty level, by Saturday his butt was noticeably higher.

Definitely bum high.

I rode on the next Tuesday. His first trot felt a bit discombobulated and he stumbled a couple of times, which he hasn't done since the first couple of rides. (This could have also been because the other horses left the ring and he had some feelings about that.)

I was kind of thinking that maybe it would be best to start his winter break early, and when I wentout on Friday to ride I looked at his back and the way it was swooping up to his much higher butt and said, nah, he's done for the season. 

In case you missed it in the first pic.

However, I allowed myself to have one more ride around the field the next day if someone was around to go with me. It was supposed to be a beautiful day, quite possibley the last of the season. 

Sure enough, I woke up in the morning with a text from someone asking if I wanted to head out after my lessons were done for the day. Of course I said yes.

So off we went, on what turned out to be a somewhat overcast and gloomy afternoon. Very much not what was forecasted.

Stitch had only been ridden once that week, so he definitely had a bit of sass in his step. Not fancy prancing horse sass, but I knew there was something in there.

I also figured out why he always has a dorky center part in his forelock - he has a giant cowlick at the base. His forelock is never going to lay flat without assistance.

What was different on this ride from our previous jaunts around the field was that the other rider's dog was accompanying us. He was full of energy and was running everywhere, including into the ditches, which then meant popping back into the field from behind the tall grass along the edge. 

I'm sure you can guess where this is going. 

Stitch was fine along the first side of the field, although he was keeping a close eye on the spaniel.

As we turned the corner I moved him a little closer to the edge of the field and onto the packed road. We weren't there for long before the dog popped out of the grass, and Stitch showed me just what his big spooks were going to look like.

He spun to the left. Very quickly. Pretty sure his front end dropped pretty good too, but it was so fast I really don't know. 

The good news is that we had our first canter, and it was on the left lead that will be his tougher one to get!

The spin threw me out of position - I lost my left stirrup, the saddle slid quite a bit to the right, my reins were long so my hands were way up in the air (but not that long because I was kind of anticipating something was going to happen). As I was starting to look for a soft landing place, I realized my dressage whip was flapping around way up in the air which probably wasn't helping things. 

I thought to myself if he's going to buck, this is where it's going to happen. 

But he didn't.

And I got myself somewhat organized and just rode the canter out. Stitch came back to walk, gave that dog a dirty look, and we continued. 

I mean, I wasn't crazy enough to really tempt fate and go back to the edge of the field. We stayed more so in the middle and ended the ride much earlier than planned. The other rider is of the nervous sort so she was also a little traumatized by my spook and was quite happy to change the plan up.

I still call the ride a success. Something happened, we survived, and we continued on. It didn't go the way I wanted it to, being the last ride that we were going to have for a while, but, hey, it made a good story.

Easy & Yassss

This is the face of a horse who was so forward at the trot for the first time that I actually had to slow him down.

And a damned cute face it is.

Wednesday's ride, which I kind of dragged myself out to, felt like a bit of a breakthrough.

When Stitch picked up the trot, heading away from the gate, he propelled himself forward down the long side. I had to take a slight feel of the reins to steady the trot a bit, while saying "easy" to him. 

This continued through the ride, however most of the time "easy" was followed by "yasssss". It finally felt like he got it. This was the first ride that I thought I might even be able to ask for a canter, but I'm not ready for it yet. I want our steering to be a bit better first.

This is the body of the horse who looked level on Wednesday (my mom and I both were saying so), but by Saturday looked bum hight again.

Stitch moves nicely off my outside leg to steer, but hasn't figured out moving away and bending from my inside leg. Now that we don't have to focus so much on getting forward at the trot, we will start to add a bunch of steering, which will hopefully help him get the idea about the inside leg.

Here's hoping that the breakthrough sticks!

First Ride Out

We've been experiencing a last kick at summer this week. The daytime temperatures have been beautiful, it just takes all day to get there. It now gets dark by about 7:30 in the evenings, which makes it difficult to get a chance to do any riding outside after work as I don't get to the barn until about 6pm.

This week, my day off happened to be on one of the nicest days of the week, so I was determined that I would be riding outside. I was really hoping to head out to one of the stubble fields that surround the barn, but would need a barn mate to babysit Stitch and I. If that didn't pan out, then I would settle for walking around the yard. 

I put a post up on the barn's Facebook group the night before and there was one person who was able to join me (and a whole lot who I will try to get out with on a weekend). Plans were made and we were riding out at noon on Monday. 

We had two options on where to go. The field on the opposite side of the road had been planted with potatos this year. They were harvested a couple of weeks ago, which of course involves digging the rows up. We couldn't tell until we got over there just how deep the rows were going to be. Last year I took Cisco over at the end of the season and they had harrowed the field and it was a foot deep with loose top soil. Not great to walk through. If that is what we were heading into, we were going to move down the road to the stubble field, which is a bit further away but would be easier to walk in. 

It turned out that the potato field was the perfect place for a walk - there was a packed road all around the field, wide enough for probably 3 horses to walk side by side. Perfect to be able to walk around on a loose rein and chat with a friend. Especially when your horses were behaving perfectly, as ours were.

This was Stitch's 14th ride. I was pretty confident that he would be a good boy on his first ride out, and I was right. We did almost the whole thing on the buckle. There were short moments where he had to lead, and lots of time that he was behind.

Stitch was in the lead when we came around a bend that the bushes were hiding a big, scary green monster - some sort of John Deere harvesting equipment. Stitch gave it the hairy eyeball but stayed in the lead to get us past it. 

This is passing the big scary green monster. 

The only time that he needed reassurance from his babysitter was almost at the end when we apporached the pipeline site. It's a small chainlink fenced area that has large white pipes that come out of the ground, a small shed and a flagpost with a wind sock. I'm not sure what he saw there that worried him, but he gave it a very wide berth.

It was a perfect first ride out for a baby horse. Now I just need the weather to cooperate so that we can get out there again before winter sets in. 

First Pole Course

As we have started working on steering at a trot, Stitch has shown an interest in the poles and jumps that seem to inevitably set up when I ride. He' s always seemed to have a thing for poles - even when I was long lining him he often made a beeline for them. 

Last Friday I finally got a free arena so that I coul set up a simple pole course suitable for a horse on his 13th ride. Namely, single poles on each quarter line and diagonal. Nothing fancy at all. But more than enough for an unfit baby horse.

We picked up our trot along a long side and Stitch immediately dove to the inside and took us over a pole. Like I said, he likes poles!

I didn't do much of a warmup with him once we got trotting - he doesn't have much stamina at this point and I wanted to get the fun stuff done before he ran out of energy.

We did our little 4 pole course two times. The first time, the first three poles were good, and just before we turned to the last pole he surged forward, which ordinarily I would be stoked about, but it meant that the turn across the diagonal, which was right after the pole on the quarter line, was a little wonky so when we got to the last pole he was a bit off balance and stalled out over the pole. 

For the second course, I just wanted to keep him going without stopping until we made it over all the poles. Again, the first three poles went well, but then Stitch was pretty sure that he was dying and dropped down to a walk along the short end. With a tap from the stick of encouragement, we got going again. The last turn across the diagonal was only slightly better than the previous time, but he was better balanced over the pole so kept trotting. Until the corner after the pole - he had to stop to poop.

Other than the last turn, everything else was nice and straight, before and after the poles. and Stitch used the full length of the arena. The turns were nicely bent to the inside and he turned nicely off of my outside leg. 

It looks like poles will be a good way to keep Stitch coming forward and working on turns and lines. We'll definitely be doing it regularly.

Making Slow Progress

Rides 8 through 12 weren't terribly exciting (just as I like them to be). We are continuing to focus on Stitch thinking forward, which is coming along nicely. I would say about 80% of the time he is forward. He tires out easily (poor unfit baby horse) so the sessions are still very short. When he slows down due to complete and utter exhaustion (according to him) I ask him for just a little bit more - around the corner, or down the next long side, before asking him to come back to walk.

We got outside for a walk after a quick ride. Steering wasn't great, but we got where I wanted to go, in a somewhat drunk fashion.

We're adding some steering at the trot. Simple stuff - diagonal lines and big circles. He moves nicely off my outside leg as a turning aid but doesn't really have the idea of bending around my inside leg yet. 

It's been hard to get the arena free of stuff set up all over the place, which in some ways is good because it gives us things to aim to go around, but in some ways is bad because we can't do small circles or really direct turns yet. 

It's also bad because Stitch seems to want to aim himself towards the thing in front of us, whether it be a pole on the ground or a 2'6" oxer. I turn with the intent of going past it, he hones in on it, and I have to pull him to the side. Is he going to be the horse who gets me back in the jumper ring? We'll see in a couple years. He's only jumped once on the lunge, and let's just say he is not a naturally gifted hunter. 

I'm starting to feel that he is asking questions. Can I slow down yet? Not yet bud, just a little more trot first. Do you want me to go into the corner? Why yes, thank you for that! There are moments where he still slams on the brakes from a trot, but they are getting fewer and I'm able to get him going again right after. Although, I still haven't started getting after him for stopping to poop. We'll leave that until next year. 

Stitch can now do a mean turn on the forehand away the wall. He halts from a walk when I close my thighs. We've started some baby leg yields at the walk - I think he's just on the cusp of figuring them out. 

I'm still planning to stop riding him for the winter at the end of October. That's only about another 12 rides if I continue with the current three days a week schedule. That's not enough time to perfect anything. I'm looking at this fall as a chance to introduce him to a bunch of things. He's a smart cookie, and I don't think he'll forget very much over his vacation. 

Rides 13 and 14 had a couple of firsts happen - but I'll write them up for later in the week.