Wah wah wah

Right foot: You're killing me!!!

I think maybe I had a little TOO much fun with Hampton over the weekend. He was a bit stiff and sore today for our lesson. Not lame, just not as much pep in his step as usual. He was also gassy and my instructor said he looked a little bloated. So yeah, he felt like the rest of us did that morning! Bloated and unmotivated. We all have days like that. :)

We didn't do anything too difficult. Mostly worked on suppling the neck ... and working through Hampton's  "issue" of spooking at the DAMN DONKEYS every time we trotted by. If he wanted to shy, I made him work harder - cross his back legs and leg yielding until he decided it might be easier if he just trotted by and gave them the hairy eyeball instead of ramming his rib cage into my inside leg. Ugh. All I could do was laugh because even when he is being spooky and distracted, he does it in the sweetest way possible. Frankly by the time we had worked through the donkey problem, he was spent and was dragging his feet. Poor guy. He can have the next day or two off. I think the little galloping we did on Sunday made him sore. It is a whole different type of movement and he isn't use to it.

I rode Baxter as well and he was as fun as could be. We worked on shoulder-in, half steps, a little passage, and canter to walk - which he doesn't know yet but I think we should get there. You should see this pony's collected canter. It is heavenly and so friggin easy for him! I still need to learn to ride him better before going to a show. But I'm thinking maybe late May or June we can do First Level?

... in trailer news, it's looking more and more like the Hawk is going to win out ...