Off into the sunset

Not sure what Hampton thinks, but I'm pretty thrilled with ride #2 of this week! Again, all alone at the farm with no ground help. He is an angel standing next to the mounting block and walked promptly off with a squeeze of the leg. I had lunged him pretty well, so I decided to just stick with walking today - the arena was sort of muddy and slick in spots anyway. The lesson plan for today was steering. That's it. After a few moments where I had to insist that "Yes, horse, we ARE going to turn right," (we actually mowed down a couple of traffic cones ... and he did not care) ...  he started to catch on and was turning with just light touches on the reins. A few times I added some outside leg and he responded to that, too. I'm hoping he will remember the steering discussions from today and we can go back to trotting tomorrow (if the arena has dried out some). He looked really good on the lunge again today. I asked for a bit of canter, but that didn't go too well. I think he's still a little too unbalanced and gangly at the moment. I'll try again in a couple of weeks. He may be one that just can't canter on a lunge circle - may  have to just bit the bullet and do it under saddle. We'll see.

It makes me laugh when I look back. Last year at this time I was doing flying changes and half pass with T-Bone ... now I plow over traffic cones because I can't steer. lol. Even so, I love young horses. I love the process and the rewards of creating a solid citizen.