The letter P eats horses.

Since it wasn't a sauna outside today, I took the beast outdoors for an evening ride. The bugs were bad and right away I could tell he was distracted and not in the mood. The hayfield had just been mowed - so of course he is gazing in that direction because it looks so different and now you can see a lot more since the grass is short. *sigh*.

Even so, I kept working on transitions (a couple of rough "float your teeth" halts were needed because he was yanking the reins away from me and not bothering to slow down). I could tell it wasn't going to be the best ride - but that's ok. So ... at this point we have worked around the arena a dozen or so times in either direction. I tried the right lead canter first - got it on the first try! Stayed on the circle today and was happy with that. Ok, left lead time. Good transition - then upon approaching letter P (which we have walked and trotted by the entire session so far ..) BAM ... OMG there is a horse-eating monster there! Hampton does one of those "plant both front feet and fling your body to the left" moves. Then a buck, then playfully tosses his head. I managed to keep both stirrups but did end up a little forward at one point. If he would have dropped his head and kept bucking, I would have been a goner. Geez. Tried the canter circle again .. SAME THING. Bad poneh. One-rein halt put a stop to his antics this time. Made him walk by offending letter several times. Tried canter again. Ugh, no antics this time but he was majorly dropping his inside shoulder. I came back to the walk and trot and worked on that some. Finished the ride with some shoulder-in (went ok, wanted to come above the bit).

i tried to set my video camera to capture the ride, but it didn't really work. I got a few OK stills ... but the canter freak-out happened off camera. DANG! Anyway, the beast will be working outside as much as I can possibly stand it this week. The arena is smaller but such is life. He needs to focus out there.

Here's what I could salvage from my video. BOR-iNG mounting sequence, then a little clip of walking ... at the time I was trying to regulate his tempo at the walk from really slow, to forward, to slow, etc.

Oh, and here is a photo of him back in March (I think?) to compare his body condition ...