It's not raining to the point that we have floods or anything. We just keep getting these sudden thunderstorms at inconvenient times. Like when I am thinking of heading out to the barn.
Nice to see that Phantom has one spot on her that is clean.
So the ponies had another few days off late last week. Sunday had me teaching some beginners for about 5 hours (so much more exhausting than it should be) but I was determined to get a ride in afterwards. And I am so glad that I did!
I was really happy with the pony. He had a bit of extra energy, but still tried hard. And there were a lot of things going on for a Sunday evening. When we entered the arena, someone was pounding posts outside the arena. Cisco was a little worried about this, and was trying to get some moral support from his friends outside. Thankfully the posts were pounded pretty quickly and that distraction ended.
Screenshots from the video camera parked in the corner. Better than nothing!
But then the next one began. Someone was doing a bunch of cleaning and was making quite a bit of noise dragging garbage bags, moving chairs, and dropping random things, sometimes in the dark part of the entryway where even I struggled to see them.
At one point a dog ran past the open door. And then someone started weed whacking around the exterior of the arena.
Getting somewhere...
A year ago, these distractions would have set Cisco off and we would not have been able to recover. He was not able to forget what had happened. As of late, this has changed. First time past something he might need to give it a wide berth. Next time around, he's cool with it. The only thing that really phased him on this ride was when the dog ran past the door. Cisco dove to the inside, but stayed at the same gait. Next time around, he looked at the door, but went nicely into the corner. Big change over a year ago.
A little tight in his neck, but he's trying!
He didn't have as steady a feel through this ride as he did for the previous ride, but he was trying his little heart out to be good. We had our best canter transitions so far - 4 out of 5 were prompt and on the correct lead. The canter was a bit zoomy, since it was his first ride in 5 days that was no big deal.
A little far away, but his neck felt much longer and lower than proved in the video. Still, I'll take it!
I had set up the video camera at one end of the arena to see the nice trot that he's been giving me. It's not the best, but it gives me an idea.
I'm pretty sure we had way more moments of stretching forward than what the video showed. When we d get those moments, they look nice. He's not fully honest into the connection, but he's trying to figure it out.
Also - what are my hands doing!?!? Shorten my frickin' reins and get my thumbs on top dammit!And I really need to soften my elbows at canter. 30 years of riding, and I still can't get it right!
you two look good and he did great to deal with all those distractions! I love it when they are really trying despite all the scary things.
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