Liar Liar

I am happy to say that Cisco has been making a liar out of me.

I recently posted about how I've figured out that he is nervous in the arena when he's by himself. Apparently, I spoke too soon.

On Sunday morning I went out to take off Cisco's rainsheet. I got a hug in return. The look on my face is because I wasn't quite sure what he was doing!

The last couple of rides have started with another horse in the ring when we get in there and do a quick lunge, but either shortly after getting on or while I'm getting ready to get on, the other horse leaves and we are solo. Cisco has worried for about 30 seconds, then he's able to focus and we can get to work.

I'm not sure why the sudden change, but I'm not going to complain about it.

He's not perfect about the scary bits when he's by himself - we still have to gradually work our way up to the scary end, and he's become a bit attached to the gate to leave the arena, but he's relaxed enough that we're able to work through it.

So much hair on the bottom of my new Lemieux saddle pad.

Because he's been a bit more relaxed, he's giving me some decent moments at a trot. (We'll just ignore the canter for a bit - it's happening, but it's got a long way to go.) The right bend is starting to happen more consistently, although throwing the right shoulder out through a walk/trot transition is still an annoying habit.

The Strip Hair worked great to get the hair out.

On our last ride. I was able to sit up and ride him like I expected him to just be there, and he responded positively. When I've tried that in the past he worried, so I was very happy to get this new result. Of course, now I have to work a little harder and ride him like that more often. That seems hard.

Besides doing a bunch more canter to start strengthening that gait, I need to work on leg yields and installing the forward button. They're both partly installed, but they need to be much sharper and not up for negotiation. I'll have to start carrying the dressage whip on a regular basis instead of my little jump crop.

Barn chickens decided that someone's saddle cart was a perfect roost. Thankfully, they didn't pick mine (which was next to this one) because I had a bunch of blanket liners thrown over it.

So, I'm quite happy with the progress that we're making. We've really only been back at the riding thing for about 5 weeks after most of 4 months off, and even within this 5 week period we've not been super consistent. It's not going to get any better - vaccinations are next week, and I'm pretty sure he'll need a couple of days off (better than Phantom's required 7 - 10 days off due to her inevitable vaccination lump), then I have a 3 day weekend of travel or teaching, and soon after will likely be a minimum 2 weeks off for my surgery.

After that though - it should be all good for the rest of the summer! Fingers crossed!