One Month of Awesome

Given his extended vacation that was primarily spent on a small drylot, I thought Mr. Courage might benefit from a day of lunging before I got back in the saddle.

And then I thought "I don't pay for two horses so I can lunge on my freaking birthday". With that solid rationale in mind, I tacked up and headed for the arena. I did decide that the best way to continue to advance the education of my lil' OTTB was to start out by lunging in side reins for a few minutes so we could practice learning about contact before I tried to do anything. It went like this:

Pretend the bit is FIRE

Me: "Courage, move forward into the contact and stretch through your back.

Him: "What's brown and eats out of trees?"

Me: "Keep going. A giraffe?"

Him: "A COURAGE GIRAFFE OMFG I AM SO FUNNY"

Me: "It's really not that funny. Go forward."

Him: Lookit! It's my giraffe impression. What kind of noise does a giraffe make?"

Me: "Go. Forward."

Him: "Knock knock."

Me: "Who's there?"

Him: "A COURAGE GIRAFFE!!!"

He sort of relaxed eventually, so I decided to give up on the lunging and move along. Clearly, it's a work in progress. He understands the whole "go around me in a circle" part of the concept, so I guess that's good.

I didn't have high hopes for our ride. He walked forward pretty well, so I tried to do a little work on giving to the contact and moving off my leg. Then I moved him up into the trot.

The Courage Giraffe was gone. He was forward (for him) and stretching his neck forward and down. Not a fancy dressage stretch by any means, but pretty freaking amazing for him. He didn't learn it from the side reins and he certainly didn't learn it from me, so I can only assume that he's training himself in his spare time.

Ears on the grass

Despite his time off, he was super relaxed, picked up both leads correctly, and seemed quite comfortable in his new shoes. That made the next decision obvious. I opened the arena gate from his back and rode out through the fields. I'd ridden in the near pastures before and he was good. This time I took him into the bigger, farther away pastures. He just marched along on a loose rein.

The best birthday ride

Our BO even came out and took pictures for me, hooray!

Yet again, I was completely thrilled with how Courage handled the new situations and challenges that I threw at him. He's one month removed from the track and he's quiet enough to hack on a loose rein. I keep saying he's going to be awesome, but the truth is that he already is.