Motoring

Dead Sexy

After the stunning success that was grid night, we had a rather lackluster flat school Thursday and then Courage took the day off on Friday. You actually could argue that he pretty much took Thursday off too, but let's not go there.

Anyways. Redheadlins was coming to play with Diva on Saturday and she brought Alyssa (and a camera!) along. I wasn't planning on riding or being photographed, so I didn't exactly dress the part. Oh well. Just look at the cute little bay horse and ignore me.

Usually Courage takes a bit of trotting to get going forward, then we fuss about whether or not he can put his head down, then we fuss about whether or not he can move off my leg, and then we look pretty good for a while.

So fancy

Yeah. Not so much on Saturday. The little man just came out on the go button. I literally picked up my reins and had a soft, rideable horse.

It's probably a good thing that he isn't like this all the time. I would get so lazy. We didn't putz around with shoulder fore and leg yields, because I use those to get him bending and engaged.

Since he was already engaged, they seemed superfluous.

Zooming!

He gave me some nice transitions and lovely forward canter work. I spent more time worrying about correct aids than whether or not he was actually going to do what I asked. So fun! My little man is turning into a broke horse.

I kept it to a flat school since we had a jump date on Sunday. I couldn't stop smiling. It's just so much fun. He's forward and moving through his back and on the aids and happy doing his job.

Plus Friends of Ferdinand tee!

Plus I'm getting totally spoiled by having beautiful weather and photographers on hand for all the awesome going on lately.

One of my favorite features about Courage is that he can lay down that quality work, then just go park in the middle of the arena on a loose rein and watch the world go by. Doesn't matter if Diva is having a hissy fit about Lins' right leg again or if someone's galloping by on a windy day.

At the end of the day, it almost feels surreal. I'm having so much fun with my little man. I didn't think I'd be able to connect and have fun like this for quite a long time. I mean, sure, he has the occasional bad day, but by and large, Courage is possibly the most ammy-friendly green horse I've ever been around. He gets occasional training rides and we've had two (count 'em) lessons this year and he is just coming along beautifully.

;-) And I haven't even told you about his Sunday jump date yet!