Back to work

So today was our first day of real work.

We rode in the indoor arena for the first time. I led Cajun around to let him look at everything, especially the mirrors.

We began the day with a good active walk, and learning straightness. This will be a big lesson, he is pretty wiggley, but he'll get the hang of it. I began asking him to walk on the bit, and still keep an active walk. He did ok, just fine. He is so willing and interested in pleasing. But he did spend most of the lesson with his nose out and back hollow, but showed many instances of relaxing at the poll and bringing his back up. This will happen in time.

We did three trot sets both ways, five minutes a piece with three to five minute active walk breaks between. Sometimes the "active" part of the walk was lacking, it was starting to get hot, even at 10 am. We practiced leg yields, learning that yes, I do mean it every time, even if you just did it a second ago. We also practiced bending and straightening with the hourglass pattern - imagine trotting an hourglass shape in an arena, with the horse's body following the curves, then straightening at the top, bending to trace the side, bend in the middle, then straighten along the diagonal, bend to trace the bottom, etc. We did that three full circuits.

He's coming along fine. I wanted to wait to have a formal lesson with Melody, but I think we are both ready for her to have a look. She'll have lots of great advice. I will call her tonight.

I hosed him down and turned him out. he likes it.