What a Weekend!

I was pretty much exhausted after a long work week so I wasn't planning on doing much this weekend, I had us scheduled for a long conditioning hack on Saturday and a light dressage day on Sunday. Things did not end up going quite as planned but I was very happy with our work anyways:)

On Saturday I was all set for our first hack out to the galloping track. Thankfully I decided to walk around in the arena first to make sure he was calm enough to handle the outing all on his own. True to form he was more than a little feisty and I ended up walking around for about 45 minutes with about 5-10 minutes of trotting working mostly on shoulder-in and some leg yields to keep him focused and relaxed. When we finally ventured out on the trail he was a superstar, even when the old man on the farm next door starting firing his gun off as we were walking around the track. I had visions of Gatsby hearing the gunshot, shooting out from underneath me and disappearing forever. Fortunately my horse is apparently much more reliable than I had thought and with a toss of the head and a few steps of prancing, we were safely on our way home. I think our total ride ended up 5 minutes of trotting, 1 hr 10 min of walking, a little shorter than I had planned but I didn't really have a choice, what with the target practice and all.

I headed out on Sunday with plans for a light dressage school. However, he was absolutely fantastic and I decided to take the opportunity to work on some lengthenings, sitting trot, and lateral work. Can I just say I LOVE my horse! That was definitely one of the BEST dressage schools we have ever had. He was just so responsive and relaxed. He did have some confusion when I started introducing side pass so we will have to work on that but seeing as it was his first time, I'm not too worried. His lengthenings are getting better every ride and his shoulder-ins are actually starting to be quite lovely. I even had a friend who was previously afraid of getting on him say that after seeing him go she actually kind of wanted to try riding him:)

This week unfortunately will be a little cramped because I am going home again this weekend. He will have today off and then I am planning on doing trot sets tomorrow, dressage on Wednesday and a jumping lesson on Thursday. This will be our last jump school before schooling at Twin so I have my fingers crossed that it will be successful!