Such a Clever Boy

I seem to have hit the jackpot--not only is my little guy adorable and sweet, with the best post-race brain I have ever seen, he's also happy to mosey around under saddle and chat with friends all day.

Oh, and he's wicked smart.

Just call him "Giraffe Man"

The only drawback is that I really don't care to mosey that much. I mean, chatting with friends is fun, but when we're working, I like a ZOOM ZOOM engine. When redheadlins rode him last week, she was able to demonstrate his very-functional go button. She also pointed out that he went in a shadow roll and rings (martingale) for a reason on the track.

Look who can flex his poll after all

Ok. Time for phase two. C-rage took the weekend off while I attended to "real life", and we started fresh on Monday.

On the lunge. In side reins.

I really don't believe in lunging as a form of exercise--I see only negatives to running horses around in tiny circles for extended periods of time. That said, I do think all horses should be able to lunge in case the need comes up, and I think this counted as a legitimate need.

We took it easy. First I let him warm up W/T both directions. Then I added the outside rein W/T both directions. When he settled and was able to trot through his sticky corner, I added in both reins both directions.

Best shot I could get while trying to keep him going

I kept the side reins loose. I never asked him to canter because he's still finding his balance on smaller circles and there's no reason to stress him out about the whole thing. We were done in about 20 minutes.

I do think that asking him to move in a different way and learn new concepts is challenging (and I am apparently busy this month), so he got the next day off to recover and process.

Which brings us to Wednesday.

Demonstrating his lovely walk

Given that his last two sessions were rather mind bending, I was curious to see how he'd do. We walked around for a good 10-15 minutes, seeing the sights and chatting. He's really good about dropping his poll and moving forward at the walk.

Then it was time to find out just how much progress we'd made. I asked for the trot. . .

Blurry and adorable

And off we went! Big forward stride, covering ground. After a few strides, he started to relax and drop his poll.

It's obviously a newer concept for him, but he was experimenting with letting his neck stretch forward and even a little downward. He definitely improved as we rode, and offered his softest, easiest canter to date.

An excellent shot until the jump got in the way

This is what impresses me about him. The side reins were a very low-drama introduction. He's literally spent less than 20 minutes in them in his entire life, and it definitely changed his way of going under saddle. He's able to learn new skills and connect the dots with an incredibly minimal education.

White wraps, black bells.

I don't drill him. He's literally going about 4 days a week, maybe 20 minutes a day. I can leave him in the cross ties, try things on, adjust them, put them back on, pull his mane, screw with him, and he's rock solid. His under saddle work progresses in leaps and bounds even with very minimal riding. He's taking to the sport horse world like a fish to water.

And I love it.