Turtle Steps

Title inspiration here, essentially another, cuter, word for baby steps. 

Butterball and I trekked down to PW's solo on Monday. 

His face was looking so darling, but he's standing with his left front internally rotated, making his shoulder muscling look terrible. I didn't notice that part until I was texting my husband the adorable picture. 

We had a very productive jump lesson. Rather than a single warm up fence, he sent us straight into some roll back turns from a vertical to an oxer. I had, once again, internalized not shoving the horse at the fence, so things were flowing much better than the prior week. We then tackled the five stride line. In the video you will see that it was a six stride line the first time. Our usual problem of landing and dawdling. PW had me take him back over the single vertical and land and LEG. Ideally without flapping my body at him at the same time, but y'know, sometimes these things happen. But I did it well enough that we fixed the line. 

We then tackled the whole course, including a fun two to one stride triple that he just ATE up. PW had shortened that a tiny bit, and you can see in the video that Butterball was prepared to tackle the show distance two stride and got deep to the middle element. 

Nailing the last fence of the triple

One of the consistent things between the lesson the week before and this lesson was feeling like Butterball was leaning around the corners. The week prior I had whined and blamed. Then PW told me I was leaning in like crazy. Hrm. Okay. So this lesson I concentrated on equal weight in both stirrups around the turns. If I felt like pony pants didn't follow me out as I put weight in both stirrups, then I booted him with my inside leg at the girth to step into a solid outside hand. Whaddya know, the focus on straightness and lifting his shoulders up led to much better courses and jumps. 

We were flowing really well through the first course, so PW asked if I wanted to go higher than 0.90m. Butterball felt great and, see above, my riding was much better this lesson and none of the jumps looked big at 90, so I was okay with it. Initially I was picking out the one jump I wanted him to raise, when he suggested that may not be the best way to help me ride well because it might, perhaps, lead to overthinking that one fence. Fair enough. So everything went up a single hole. We jumped around relatively well, but he opted for the chip instead of the gap at the five stride line - I didn't see a distance at all, so I was happy that he made a decision and left the ground. If I had supported him, he probably would've taken the gap. I did then make a decision to sit up and wait for six in the line instead of five. Hooray for thinking! The next jump was a bit uncharacteristic though. After our left hand roll back turn, he did a weird leap over the vertical. PW felt like he was getting tired. But we finished strong with the liverpool. 

PW and I were both pleased that he WENT over the oxer in the five/six stride line, so he dropped it down two holes to make it easier for the tired pony and had us come again, starting with that line. This time Butterball took the gappy distance and powered down the line in five strides. We had been planning on the left hand turn to the vertical to fix that as well, but PW shouted to pull him up and that Butterball had just fixed his own mistake and that was EXACTLY what we wanted to end on. I hopped off and gave him lots of pats while I walked him out. 

On Friday PW came up to Ms. GY's again. He did a training ride on Butterball. One of his first orders of business was forward and back in the canter. He wanted him to come back smoothly and softly. But at the same time, he didn't fuss back at the pony if the pony fussed. Interesting the way that made things much less dramatic much more quickly. 

Then he popped around a few courses, working on his balance before the fences. And overall they looked great. Butterball had a few cranky moments, but I think that may be because his normal rider (sheesh) lets him get away with half answers sometimes that PW doesn't tolerate. 

Multiple fences, including the five stride line, were set at a meter and both of us were pleased with pony's confidence around the course. He didn't have any doubts or moments of questioning, even when the five stride line was a bit long and he had to reach for the large oxer. Good boy! More deposits in the trust bank. 

Borrowing Motivation

Call it horse show hangover or work related, but the past week, I just could not find any scrap of motivation. Fortunately there's a team around us to help. My goal is not to give pony random weeks off in April, we'll wait till the brutal heat of summer for a true break. That's two-fold. Presumably my motivation and desire that wandered off somewhere at the start of the week will wander back in, and it isn't fair to expect the pony to be a lot of fun if he has no fitness. And, while he is metabolically healthy, he is the upper end of where I like to see his weight right now, and he needs to keep his booty moving to stay that way. 

Monday he had his day off after the show. Tuesday we did a stretchy hack around the pasture that lasted all of 15 minutes. Wednesday he got his feet done, so I had a legit excuse for not actually working. His trimmer asked how he'd been doing after trims and since he hasn't had any soreness, she got a bit more aggressive about standing up his hind feet. He kinda looked like he was wanting to develop quarter cracks behind and he had some flaring, so she addressed both those things. I'm very glad he's on a four week schedule right now, it feels like he needs it as he grows quickly in the spring. 

Sneak preview of the left hind, the rest will follow in our monthly wrap up post. 

Compared to what we had back at the end of January just a couple of weeks after pulling his shoes. 

The next day, PW came up to the farm to teach me and Ms. GY and one other friend. 

This was Butterball's response to the first lesson going on in the ring right by his field. 
"No thank you, I'm busy now, can't." Perhaps he's also feeling the lack of motivation this week. 

Given the above feelings and a general tiredness (work is kicking my butt this week), I asked PW to get on him. I did warn him that he had gotten his feet done a bit more aggressively than in the past, so if there was any hind end funkiness we could call it and try again in a week or two. But he said he felt like his normal self. 

One of the things I very much appreciate about PW is that he took our discussion back in February seriously and has not put jumps one speck over 90 since then. We got a compliment in the warm up at the LCT show the weekend prior - another trainer had seen our disastrous warm up and then PW's challenging trip with him in December. She commented that he looked happy and confident now and we were doing a great job. 

So on Thursday, he handed me the measuring tape, essentially to make sure things stayed under that 90 cm mark we discussed back in February. Except after a discussion of exactly when we would want to increase the height, we both decided these were the exact circumstances where it might be a good idea: 

- Butterball feels HAPPY to do his job and take whatever distance is there, including in the show ring, and including when I loosen the reins at him at an oxer. 

- PW is riding

- It is in a grid

So we gradually built the three oxers up from 80 to 90 to a smidge over a meter with about a meter in width. And Butterball looked HAPPY to do his job through the grid. He also just looked freaking amazing over the fences. His style got better and better too, you can see it in the change from the first trip to the second trip in the video below, especially over the first fence in the grid. 

Oh to have that soft, following hand

Wheee

Unfortunately my phone chose the last fence to go out of focus, but y'know, you can still see him blurry and all jumping the snot out of that oxer. 

I sent the video to his trimmer and said "I think his feet feel fine!" She agreed. I was delighted by the whole thing. It's so much fun watching BB bounce merrily over fences, he's just a fun horse to ride and to watch. 

Today I fought my lack of motivation by pulling up an exercise from the 101 dressage exercises book. It was under straightness and was three trot-halt-trot transitions on a 15m circle. I haven't done a lot of sitting trot on BB, so it was interesting to play with that during the exercise. I am much more aware of my crookedness while sitting, I think. We did a few circles without transitions as I worked on even weight in my seat bones and turning my whole body to turn him. Then we added in the transitions. Initially he was a bit anxious and hot about things and offered a few different gaits and not gaits, but we smoothed them out some. I never did quite get keeping the curve of the circle through his body as we halted, but we got closer. Then we worked a little bit on walk-canter-walk and slowing the canter down without me having to hold him every stride. He was quite good for that and we got one truly quality canter-walk. 

It wasn't a long ride, but it was productive. And it stuck to JV's direction of only going for as long as I could keep my focus and therefore help him keep his focus. 

And that concludes the week. Wish me luck digging up my motivation and energy sometime this weekend! 

What are You Willing to Struggle for?

See this article for title inspiration. 

Butterball and I have continued seeing PW weekly or even twice a week sometimes for the past several weeks. It's time to recap those lessons and training rides, mostly for my own journaling process.  

Immediately post HITS, PW put a training ride on Butterball where they worked through a one stride of increasing height and increasing distance between fences. The goal was to get BB comfortable with stretching for the long spot and still leaving the ground confidently. 

Then for our last lesson of 2025 we worked on gymnastics down the long sides with single fences across the diagonals to change direction. Approach the gymnastics with a 9' canter stride , but then he has to move forward on his own to get the normally set 1, 2, and 3 strides in the lines. Keep that forward show ring canter across the diagonals, then bounce shorter again to hit the next gymnastic line. 

Single oxer 

Single vertical

Overall it went well. He looks SO MUCH stronger in his canter than he did last spring. And we can adjust much more easily to a canter that is starting to carry from behind. But if you are dedicated and watch the video through to the end you can see the current struggle. We got deep to the single vertical once and he punched the front rail out. Then we got deep a second time and he declined. Fair enough, he doesn't like touching things. PW dropped the jump and since it wasn't a show I rode normally, and he pinged right over. He put it back up and we came through the gymnastics line again then around the corner, got a nice distance to it, and all was well. 

Part of the gymnastics line

Gah, he's just so cute

When the distances are given to us, this is so much easier

In our first lesson of 2026, PW started with a similar one stride warm up. Then I popped on and we did a little bit of course work. Related distances, a one stride, and bending lines. He stopped twice, at distances he could have taken. The canter is better, I'm riding better, he's strong enough to leave the ground, he got a quick tap instead of just a circle and representing. He popped on over with a bit of tension the next time. But the last run through we ended up relatively smooth. I did have a major adult ammy moment when he was drifting right through the one stride and I corrected it in one direction, but then actually opened my right rein and made it worse when we changed directions. I was thinking of moving him towards the center of the ring in the first direction, so changing direction I kept moving him towards the center of the ring, aka encouraging the right drift. Lol. 

We headed back down on Monday, trying to squeeze in as much as possible before his shoes get pulled so we can end on a good note for the time being. PW warmed him up and then did a trot jump repeatedly as I inched it up. With the idea of teaching him to leave the ground from a tight spot. It was a vertical with a placing pole in front. They ended up trotting about 3'6". Sheesh. As PW said, this is not lack of scope on Butterball's part. Then he cantered around with a loop in the reins and jumped various jumps, all around 2'6". Butterball buried himself at an oxer and stopped. After that though he was super, so I hopped on. We approached all the jumps off a very short prep. Hit the rail, walk to canter, turn to the jump. Butterball was absolutely game on. I was to sit with 50% of my weight in my stirrups and do nothing. Don't drop him, don't drive with the seat, don't kick, just nothing. And we got a few funky spots.  One that would either be a chip and scramble or a long spot; I felt him make a decision and leave the ground long, good boy. Then PW popped the jumps up higher, and we popped around again, including through a one stride where we got a bit deep to the in, but he moved up and did one stride and jumped us out. PW said "We're done on that!" And I hopped off immediately and inserted many cookies and untacked him and then hand walked around the arena to cool him out. Lesson being that you do your job and take care of your mom and you get rewarded for that with a short session. 

Without the pressure of an upcoming show, this is just another bump in the road. I think we're going to come out the other side of this with an even stronger partnership as well. 

Sorting Our Sorts

Postponed one day by a sad pony boob, Butterball had a training ride Thursday morning. 

One day post-rabies vaccine, warm, painful, almost too sad for him to eat. Made much better by banamine and a walk hack. 

Thursday morning, much better

The message from the training ride was that things were almost there. There were several things JT was very serious about with him: 

• Leg means LIFT and softly move your barrel over
• Half halts mean LIFT your sternum UP and engage your butt 
• You SHALL NOT hollow and come above the bit in the canter transition

Then, using those principles, she jumped him around. And ended up laughing because he is truly the most fun to jump. I didn't think I was getting on him, but she jumped one course with the fences quite small and then had us pop them up to a generous novice height, jumped around, and had me get on. 

The difference the training ride made was INCREDIBLE. Ben felt better after training rides, but Butterball felt 1000% better. We got a lovely canter transition and then jumped around a short course. I was not half-halting enough on the way in and kept letting him get just a bit deep to the fences. JT told me I MUST half-halt with seriousness because it wasn't fair to keep making him make that much of an effort from under the jump. So then we did. Watching the video, the second two fences in the last line I still didn't half halt quite enough, but we're getting there. I did miss to the first jump in the last line, but he jumped from the long spot quite athletically. Shocking what can happen with effective half-halting. Good boy!! 

BOING! 

With those BIG items finessed just a LITTLE bit, this is the pony that feels like he will go out and do training and beyond some day. JT has him through the weekend and will do another training ride on Sunday. 

Stress-is-enhancing

I had a somewhat brain breaking lesson three weeks ago. As it goes with young horses, most of the time we're focused on him. But I had this charming new habit of jumping up his neck the stride before the fence. It is definitely made worse by trotting fences, but he definitely needs to be trotting fences right now. 

First we worked to separate my arms (hands) from my body. Even standing there pushing my hands forward without tipping my shoulders was hard and gave me a somewhat disconnected feeling. I told JT "I can't actually touch his neck without putting my shoulders forward" and she countered with the idea that as he leaves the ground the shoulders and neck will come up to me and give me the crest to push my hands into. So we practiced that for a few fences, working on the same exercise that we did the week before. She had initially said she wanted to get back to playing with the related 5 to 1, but then altered that once she saw what crimes I was committing with my position. I'll be honest, the hands are HARD for me. It was HARD to separate my hands from my torso. Eventually I seemed to get it a bit better, keeping my shoulders TALL and my hands TO THE JUMP. 

Then we worked on STAYING there through his landing. If I thought about watching the hunter pros finish jumps it worked out okay. Pressing my hands into his crest until I was positive he had landed, and THEN sitting down and telling him his job. Better a stride too late than a split second too early. 

Once we had re-established shoulders TALL to the jump, I got the direction to allow my belly button down a bit over the jump (ie folding). But better to NOT do that and have soft hands and be a bit left behind than fling myself up his neck way before he takes off. 

Goggles was actually being very nonchalant about the jumps. I was having to leg him off the ground a bit more and kick him forward in the line to get the 7 strides in the bending lines (it was a going 6 or a quiet 7). The oxer got put up to about 2'6" and reasonably wide and he felt SUPER over it. The smaller ones he was definitely kind of bored by at this point. Which is awesome! I'll take it over rushing jumps and it is a strong advertisement for keeping the jumps small for a looooooong time. 

JT had sent me a link to a neck strap a while ago and I asked her to resend it after this lesson and finally purchased myself one. I got it with hunter green padding, but retrospectively maybe should have done burgandy to match his saddle piping. Oh well, you can barely see the saddle details unless you're looking. 

So many straps involved now 

A few days later I trotted over cavaletti at home and still had a shockingly hard time not making a big move with my body over them. We trotted half a clover leaf over two cavaletti until I stopped flinging myself around. It had the added benefit of helping him relax into a rhythm as we did the pattern. 

The next week was Goggles turn for stress is enhancing. The liver pool has become A THING, so we started with that. 

Once that was better, we moved on to the course. I pulled him to a stop at one, but otherwise we did pretty well. For a horse that was once super clutzy, he was shockingly clever with his feet through the one strides. 

I don't know why I still find it so shocking every time I see a picture where he's doing the things

It took us a couple of tries down the two stride line to do it in two instead of three. But I'm still thrilled that he will take the short distance rather than the long sometimes. Plus we were trotting in, so we had to really get going once we were in the line to make it happen. 

Thursday we came back down and he had a training ride with JT coaching and AT riding. He was again shocked and dismayed by the liver pool, so I ordered a tarp immediately after and that is going to be in his field existing. Then he's going to walk over it repeatedly. Then it's going to move. And we'll start again. He had one stop when JT put up a crossrail oxer to a real oxer and he was shocked. She dropped it back to the crossrail oxer and they backed up and then went over it. The next time through he did 6.5 strides to it, but went, and then the final time, he got it all together to do 6. 

It is so helpful to see AT riding and hear JT's remarks so I can try to put it all together as well.

ermagerd, monsters! 

Fix It Forward

I have no pictures of me riding, but a few from his training ride and some randoms sprinkled in to break up my text wall. 

Monday Goggles and I headed down to JT's for our first lesson in... a while... we last lessoned on February 29th. We had a grand total of two lessons in February. Compared to my prior usual schedule of once weekly lessons, this was quite a change. We did get down to JT's once in March, but it was for a training ride. The lesson in February that prompted the training ride in March was a bit disheartening. We were tackling the liver pool which has spooked him for a looooooong time. But he would.not.stop. bucking after going over the jump. He felt wholly untrained pretty much the whole ride. 

Goggles being a pest, ft. DAPPLES!

Then our chill school at Sweet Dixie also involved some bucking after fences, although much less. More concerning, there was a solid refusal on his part to a BN cabin that I thought was within our capability. It was spitting rain and the ground was WET, and I didn't press the issue. 

He was a bit much while tacking up. Not actually anxious, just READY TO GO!

But... but... the lesson Monday was AMAZING!!! We started with changes of direction and bend while warming up. She was really pleased with the trot, but in the canter wanted more forward and wasn't having me stick to just circles. She had me doing a 20m circle or two and then cantering him straight down the long side. She said to make the canter quality and fix it by going forwards. It occurred to me I really haven't cantered this horse in a straight line in a loooong time if ever. Part of lining the body parts up especially in the canter is MOVING forward. It helped straighten out some of the twisting he wants to do. We've made the trot SO much better, now time to focus on the canter more.

We moved on to jumping a cross rail back and forth and he was quite agreeable. Then we moved to the liver pool. He has met the liver pool in many forms now and has grazed at the edge of it while I've stood on it. The lesson in February was when we told him to get over it with the aid of JT snaking the lash on the lunge line on the ground behind me, gradually getting closer. He needed this again on Monday, he stopped about six strides out and started to say Hell NO. But then he went. And with a lot less drama after. She instructed me not to let him pull me down towards it as he approached. I have to be giving over the jump, but letting him lean his shoulders and neck down at the ground right before jumping isn't actually useful. I focused on keeping my shoulders up and counting our trot tempo, the same one we've been practicing this whole month. It worked really well and I was still able to release pretty well and go with him over the fence. It was even easier to go with him from my shoulders back and up position than if I was really tipped forward as he stretched down to sniff/stare at the fence. 

Next we tackled the minion painted barrels. Again, about six strides out, he slammed on the brakes and tried for sideways. She didn't have me jump it from a standstill because it was an oxer x-rail over the barrels, but we turned and re-approached and she snaked the whip behind him and over he went. We hopped that back and forth a few times before stringing together a course of four fences including a red, white, and blue panel gate. She was nearby in case back up was needed, but he popped over after just a hard look on the way in. The last two fences were unicorns to the minions on a bending line. I let him keep cantering after landing from the unicorns. He thought about exiting, but it was pretty easy to direct him over the minions. We did the whole course one more time and just added on a left hand turn after the minions to a crossrail with new X filler under it. He popped over that with no hesitation at all. GOOD BOY!!! 

JT and I were chatting and think a few things really came together in the lesson. One is that as I've said a few times now, I have gotten MUCH more exacting in my aids and expected responses. Another is her assistant trainer's training rides on him. She is a great rider and it is really helpful regardless, but I think her jumping him at the GY's where he is more relaxed and he's going over their less exciting jumps is also really helpful. My impression is that it is allowing him to really figure out how to use himself athletically in a lower stress environment, so he has that basic foundation to fall back on when things get more exciting. He's jumping soooooo much better and is therefore much more comfortable to ride. It is also really helpful for me to watch these rides because she does such a great job communicating with him up to the jump then staying out of his way over the jump but then immediately landing and asking him to do something. I also just had a much more relaxed mindset than last lesson where I ended up frustrated that he wasn't further along. And guess what? Not being frustrated about something makes for a much more productive time with more learning opportunities for BOTH of us. 

He was being absolutely WILD before I loaded him up to go to the GY's the morning of his most recent training ride...

He did stop at this the first time, but went nicely the second

Cutie

Looking really nice

The Daily Grind

So my excuse for blogging this go round is I have been sick more in the past month than I have in the past ten years. Started with food poisoning, a terrible first, and then COVID, also for the first time, at least symptomatic, and now some other viral funk that I got from my BFFs kiddos while having an otherwise lovely visit with them. Work has also been tossing more than the normal level of "extras" my way, which is fun... there should be a benefit to it in the end, but it feels an awful lot like I'm doing a lot of busy work for no return currently.

I'm toying with the idea of moving Ben to Goggles' farm so they can hang out together because Goggles is still kinda stressy away from his friends. His belly is happy, and we've been having some really good rides, but he does not like being alone in his field. Since he's happy barefoot behind, I might give them a chance to be together. TBD. 

Goggles had about a week off when I went out of town and came back better than ever. He did some really great trot-canter transitions and worked very hard at staying up off his inside shoulder in both directions. We ended with a walk up to the front of the property and along the road. 

These fools galloped up to the fence behind us and all he did was a bit of sideways trotting

The mini donkey was running laps around the horse and Goggles did a great job keeping his cool in spite of that. There was definitely some heart pounding under my leg, but considering the situation that also included a trash can lid flapping in the wind, he was super brave. 

The next ride was equally delightful with some really soft, lovely trot work. The focus on slow , consistent tempo means we're sometimes lacking impulsion and push, but we can add those back in soon. He was even braver by the donkey, enough so that I was brave enough to pull out my phone to snap a picture. 

Herro! Friends?? 

Absolutely gorgeous Florida day

He got a training ride last week at the GY's from JT's assistant trainer. She came up to teach the other boarder at the GY's and we planned to have her hop on Goggles. It had been several months (at least December) since she rode him last. 

He was such a good egg. If you watch the video, at one point he sort of awkwardly hopped the in with a bit of a canter stride not a real jump, then he politely did the quiet 5 down the line. Another time he got a good, big jump in and then did an easy 4. I was very proud to see him make good choices about both without flailing. The assistant trainer said it was the best he'd ever felt. A good reminder that we are making progress. She'll be out to ride him again this morning, and I'll video some more then. 

She does such a great job being giving over the jump with him

For our at home rides, we're chipping away at the very basics still, but making them quality. I'm being very exacting about his tempo and bend, the best tidbits I took away from watching Peter Grey teach. And he's delivering, we've had softer transitions and no shenanigans in the canter lately. Another tidbit was taking eight strides instead of three to do down transitions and slowing down as you ease into it. It was really cool to watch Hillary's horse lift her back through the transition instead of drop, and I think I'm achieving that same result with Goggles. We've also started playing with baby stretchy circles at the trot. He's got a really darn nice natural free walk (time will tell if that delivers at a show with things to look at), but has definitely wanted to fall on his face when we stretch at the trot. We've been doing little bits of that with Peter's method of bend, give, praise, repeat. He's getting much better at being able to keep a steady tempo. Sometimes I end with letting him slip into a nice long rein walk while keeping the stretch the whole time, sometimes I pick him back up a little bit before asking for the walk. 

I feel like we had stalled in progress because I hadn't moved the bar, and I hadn't been at all consistent about riding him in January and February. JT and I have also been having a tough time lining up our schedules lately (ie the past two months), so I haven't had the consistent lessons to force me to continually demand a slightly higher quality, more consistent response. But watching the Peter Grey lessons gave me a new focus and a new way to work on things that has been super useful while I haven't been able to get to JT. 

I would LOVE to be done being sick, and if that works out for me, the plan is a lesson Monday morning at JT's farm, then a schooling Wednesday at Majestic over their stadium course. We're entered in a combined test the following Wednesday. I may yet scratch the stadium because the idea of a whole 2'3" course right now is pretty iffy. But we'll go and dressage and at least visit the stadium warm up. It will be a learning experience either way. Compared to Leila and Yoshi, he has NOT been an easy horse to get going. I think it will all be worth it in the end, but I have to not fall prey to internal and external comparisons. The past few months have been a bit of me dealing with that emotionally as well as trying to keep his emotions happy and still end every session on the ground or in the saddle with him feeling like a success. 

Jompies!!

Goggles had his first "jump" school with JT on Monday. It's been really interesting watching the evolution of his understanding of jumps. When I first got him, we did a lot of walking and trotting over ground poles. He was pretty nonchalant about it all. We also did some work over the natural jumps in the GY's field in hand. When we added those in under saddle, he continued to be very nonchalant and trotted in and cantered out in a really lovely, relaxed way. 

Once down at JT's, when the poles turned into slightly raised poles, he felt like the rules had been changed on him a little bit and he suddenly had to think very hard about them. It almost felt like back tracking because his nonchalance was gone. So we spent a few weeks trotting ground poles and cavaletti until he got the relaxation back. 

Last week I took him out in hand and walked over baby cross rails until he was bored, which really was almost immediately. He also jumped over a log somewhat buried in grass. I was just trying to desensitize by standing on it while he ate grass nearby, but he popped over it several times with no prompting from me. Good boy! 

He would be fairly easy to screw up if we pushed him too fast too quickly. He's sensitive and does internalize stress to some degree. He's also very willing and wants to please and wants to be a good boy, so it would be easy to have him rushing blindly and GOING and DOING IT because that's what he's supposed to do. But he wouldn't really understand the questions and would be quick and tense. 

So we kept the questions tiny and easy and JT rode him to get the timing exactly right. Not allowing him to rush into her hand before the jump, but still giving him complete freedom over the jump. 

I missed the last pass where he cantered the furthest way X really nicely and softly. Good boy!!! 

We started with ground poles between standards again, but he was very relaxed with those so then I turned them into the tiny cross rails in the video. The first pass over the cross rail, he then thought he should in fact jump the ground pole he came to next. It's so interesting to me watching him puzzle all this out. 

Semi-related, he took a field trip this weekend to majestic oaks to professionally stand on the trailer and eat hay with JT's 4 yo OTTB. I was at work, but reports were good that he went from pretty wide eyed to relaxed and munching hay. Baby steps! 

He is a LOT taller than her 4 YO 

Much media, much baby horse

Things have been very active in the baby horse department. AND! AND! I have a grand plan so baby horse will get to stay with JT in training until the end of December. Much excitement to be had. 

I also have media from two separate exciting things... 

First...

Goggles did his first grid! He had long lined the day before and walked through the cavaletti bounce on the lowest setting of the cavaletti. He tried to nope out of number two and got told what for. He apparently learned the lesson quite well because he did not even veer a tiny bit through the grid. It was three bounces, a one stride, and then another one stride followed by a placing pole. We walked through it as ground poles in hand first and then I went and tacked him up and then we walked through it, still as poles, under saddle several times. We did another few passes at the trot and then made the world's tiniest half cross rails out of the bounces and world's tiniest real cross rail of the first one stride. He was an absolute champion. He fumbled through the bounces the first couple of times but still didn't touch poles, just did a leg salad at the trot. 

The last time through, the wheels in his brain turned and he figured out cantering made things make the most sense. So even though we'd been encouraging him to trot in and pick up the canter over the first one, he decided to canter before and did it beautifully. 

Such a good, brave baby horse. JT and I were both delighted with him. 

Looking so enthused but also so grown up all of a sudden, pre-ride

Acquired his own bit and bridle and sparkly browband, hand me down from Yoshi, therefore not matching with the bridle 

Each time through the grid he figured it out more and more. He kept his brain engaged the whole time and listened to direction. I could not be happier. 

Second... 

He had his second training ride with JT! He's been in partial training with her since the end of July, but she correctly deduced he needed A LOT of long lining to have a few fights about connection with himself. And he has benefited so much from it. She rode him once a week or two ago, but I was out of town. This time I was around to watch and video. 

He was SO GOOD!!! He did baby baby leg yields and each time he gave more of the right answer. The first time he did a half step sideways and got a load of praise. The next time he offered 75% more. How cool! 

She was insistent that he hold himself and that he keep his shoulders in front of his haunches. She explained the ball of energy, the bit is the top of the trapezoid, rider's legs are the base, the energy ball is over the withers ideally because that's what you want to lift. And you use leg and to a lesser degree rein to keep the energy ball in line. If they're behind the leg, the energy ball has slipped back. If they're running, it is too far forward. Focus on keeping it in the right spot with leg, your own balance, and occasionally rein. 

She also helped with the timing of the halt aids. I had been struggling with being able to put leg on into the halt, but she was getting after me because without leg they will just drag down and get heavy and hard. Seeing her do it made it so much more clear. 

Then they worked on the canter. Again she emphasized that he's really pretty naturally balanced in the canter, so don't rush him forward and off that balance. They did work on the right lead transition with a bit of a conversation about shaking him off the left shoulder when he tried to yank down onto that and fall onto the left lead. 

He did quite a few 15m canter circles and even the long side of the arena. The lack of struggle I've had doing 20m canter circles on the 17h(+??) 4 year old has been amazing. I don't have a ton of experience with green beans, but he is hands down the easiest I've ever sat on in that regard. 

Look at that hind leg!

Weeeee!!!

Left lead too!

Pats for the goodest boy

Goes without saying we're not fussing with his head right now. His body parts have to be straight and he has to be going forward, he can put his head wherever he feels like it.

I'm still holding hostage the video I pulled all these screenshots from, perhaps for another post. It has JT's commentary of exactly what she's doing, and a lot of me irritatingly saying "yeah" very close to the microphone. But her commentary is incredibly helpful.