Return of the Birds of Doom

Back around New Year's, an owl appeared in the arena and within a week or so, all the pigeons in the arena magically disappeared.

Good owl.

Last week, one of the overhead doors to the arena stopped working and the door was open for a couple of days. Over the weekend, they had a reach truck and a dump truck in the arena, so the other big door would have been open for a bit.

And now we have pigeons again. At least 6 of them. 

On Sunday some of the horses were losing their brains over the presence of the pigeons.

Cisco wasn't one of them. 

Apparently pigeons are no longer murderous. 

These pigeons were being quite brave/stupid and were wandering around on the ground. A few times we had to steer right into them, and then they would fly away just as we got up to them. And it didn't faze him. If anything, a couple times he kind of bulged towards them. 

Maybe he was so brave because there were other horses in the arena. I think all the quiet groundwork that I've done has paid off, and he's just braver in general.

He was pretty chill for the ride, to the point that I had to borrow a dressage whip to get him going. I think I need to carry one for the next little while. He's gotten a little too relaxed the last couple of rides.

Getting on and there's suddenly no neck in front of you.

We also did our first left lead canter!

He wasn't as forward all ride as he should have been, so it took more effort than I was hoping. But we got it, and there were no crazy shananigans. We got canter twice to the left, and I was hoping to try again to the right, but another horse was having issues (about the pigeons) so I decided it would be better to end it there,

I am quite happy with how relaxed he has gotten. I need to ride more often with other people, as his attention span was not nearly as good as it had been the night before when we were by ourselves. It'll come! (But I want it now!!!!)