Wednesday, January 14, 2009

What a smart boy!

Now, maybe I'm just being the typical "proud parent," but I swear, Sammie is some sort of prodigy. He just learned to leg yield, and he's already doing it both ways with ease- just a slight bend away from the direction of travel, a squeeze behind the girth, and he's acting like a pro. Same thing with turn on the haunches, which we'd only practiced once before today. He's rounding up by himself too- I have to post a video of this. We're not all-out collected and he only does it for few strides at a time, but it's good to feel him offering some collection. I'm not drilling it into him, either- I don't believe in micromanaging a greenie, and the last thing I want to do is fry my horse.

Today, he had his first introduction to the dressage arena. I was with Maddie on her TB schoolmaster, Jackson, who also happens to be one of Sam's pasture buddies. I was really surprised at how well-behaved Sammie was. He tried to hop over the fence once, but a tap on the outside shoulder fixed that. I was very proud of my boy.

It was fifty degrees here today, and it's going to freeze tonight. Sammie was hyperactive and we got to do loads of circles before we had any brakes. After that, he behaved very well, but I'm kind of worried about my lesson tomorrow. I want to make a decent impression on the new trainer, and Sammie careening around because it's cold and he's feeling his oats. Oh well- what can you do?

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