All aboard

Finally, the middle portion of the outdoor was good enough to lunge and ride on. The outer ring of the arena though was still icy and slick, so I figured hell ... at least it would give me some incentive to really practice steering. So I tacked up the horse and lunged for about 20 minutes. He is such a funny horse. For the first 5 minutes, he is somewhat of a turd. He bulges in, he bulges out, he scoots into the canter, sometimes it seems like he might buck but he hardly ever does. Eventually I get fed up with the antics and I get after him and then ... it's like *poof* all of a sudden he lunges like he's been doing it for years and years. It's like he has to test me or something at the beginning. Anyway, I hooked up the inside side rein and continued on (trotting only). He had moments where he started to look REALLY good. He is one that really needs to be sent forward. If left to choose the speed, he will pick a slow, slothy, not-very-pretty trot. But once he's forward, the animal is quite a nice mover.

After some lunging, I was pretty convinced he had gotten his antics out (that's the nice thing about an out-of-shape youngster). I parked him next to the mounting block and just got on. This is the first time I have ridden him without any ground help. Nobody standing at his head at the mounting block ... nobody. I did have my cell phone in my pocket, and knew that there were some volunteers somewhere on the property so I was comforting knowing my body would not be left unfound for very long. But of course Hampton was fantastic. Stood quietly, walked off. Steering is still uh ... not really there, but he does have a nice fat happy mouth bit so I don't feel too guilty pulling a little harder on the rein than I normally would. I'm sure he'll start to come around soon. Mostly stayed on a big 20m-ish circle (the dry part of the arena). Did some walk, trot, turns, more circles. Then called it a day. He was very good - just needs sharped up to the aids now. In fact one time I asked him to walk off with my legs and did not get a response so *WHACK* on the ass with the whip ... and he reacted calming and stepped off. lol. He is just so much less reactive than T-Bone it's amazing to me. He will teach me a lot, I am sure.

After our ride, I pulled his mane and clipped up his face some. Now he looks like a horse, and not a yak.