February Wrap Up

Almost to the point where it seems silly to write a wrap up. But here we are. The first week of March was A WEEK. Neither one of them did enough work to make a chart make sense. Ben worked five times, Goggles eight. Hardly a program for either one. But such is life. 

Such a vivid rainbow

Ben: kiddo worked roughly once a week and was a bit bored. He caused a lot of chaos in turnout, but, knock on wood, kept his shoes on for it. We started once weekly acupuncture for ulcers. My friend shared the points with me, and we're giving it a go. 

He loves his needles

In exciting news for his boredom, a friend is coming out to ride him this week. Hopefully it will become a consistent thing. 

Looking pretty handsome in spite of the lack of work

Goggles: He had a bit of a busier month, but still only worked 8 times.

We did get our zen back though

Following a slightly frustrating lesson that turned into a training ride and getting to watch Peter Gray teach Amanda and Hillary, I changed up my approach at the end of the month. As Peter Gray put it, short bursts of quality work. I started riding with a metronome in my pocket and being very exacting about his response to my leg and rein aids, mostly the ones that say get off your inside shoulder. Bend and tempo are the MOST IMPORTANT things. Lots of breaks and lots of praise, but he knows what is being asked, so 10% and then nothing more is no longer good enough. What do you know, this makes him much better overall and stops his squirreling around in the canter. 

He was a super good boy for his solo Majestic trip! 

There's a nice horse in there! 

I am so proud of how casual he is about ditches. What a good boy. 

My goal for March with both of them is to get back into more consistent work. Three times per week minimum ideally. And I'd like to take both of them out XC at least once each. Hopefully the rest of life will cooperate!