Getting Comfortable

safety first, kids!

Due to the incident with the trailer and generally being a horse, Courage has had moments of not quite right for the past week or so. Honestly, I was expecting it. It hasn't been a big deal--we've spent a lot of time hacking around at the walk and our few "work" rides since the show have mostly been long and long stretching. Courage had a pretty intense month in June and it is definitely time to dial things back, which actually coincides nicely with the god-awful heatwave we've been having.

Dear weather: take your 110f and go somewhere else. No one wants you here.

It's been fun, though. All the work and effort we put in to showing this past month really helped Coruage grow up and understand his job. He feels a little different to sit on. I mean, it's not a huge distinction, but now I call him a confirmed training level horse.

More than that though, the fact that we did all this together has really changed the way I ride him.

His saddle is starting to feel like "home" for me, if you know what that means. Like I climb on and hack on the buckle and I don't care that he's tense and threatening to be stupid because he's my horse and I know him and I know I can ride what he throws at me.

And I think that confidence on my end transfers over to him.

because pulling makes stretchy trot better

He's had some bodywork and time off and we're ready to start putting things back together, hopefully in time for one more go at training level before fall. We're going back to the facility where I almost got dumped last time, but that doesn't really bother me. 

We've got this.