So today was interesting. It's been super nice weather here lately - about 30 degrees and dry as a bone. Today was a whole 'nother ball o' wax! It downpoured from 12 noon to about 7 pm - so when I got to the barn at 5:30 after work I wasn't really sure what to expect. Cello has never been ridden in the indoor arena at the barn, and the rain was SO LOUD! I tacked him up anyways and took him over to it.

He was nervous and snorty at first, so I handwalked him around so he could get used to the height of the walls and just chill out. I walked him until he started breathing well and didn't have a wild look in his eye. After I got on him I loose-rein walked him around for a bit, and then when I shortened my reins he started to get a little fresh and threw in a couple hops and a buck. Needless to say, I got off and just trotted him around me a bit on the longe and made him do some transitions from trot to walk. He seemed better so I got back on and just put him to work.

He was pretty nervous and fresh - he had yesterday off completely. I just put him into a trot rhythm and established a medium-short rein length and rode him forward into that contact, changing directions often and giving him lots of pats when he relaxed a bit. He was pretty looky.

After giving him a bit of a loose-rein walk break, I picked up the contact and worked on leg-yields on the wall - he's never done a leg yield before (!!) so it was fun to teach him how. Tracking left (leg yield off the right leg) he picked it up pretty quickly and stepped nicely into my outside rein, staying round and relaxed in his back. I have to remember to keep my outside leg on more consistantly in the leg yield. My muscle memory  has some holes!

Tracking right, leg yielding off my left leg, is where he has some stiffness. He's much stiffer on the left when he's working - it feels like his haunches want to fall in, his shoulders want to stick to the rail, and I can't quite get him on my outside rein - but I want to wait a bit to see if it will work itself out when he gets stronger before I pick on him too much - right now as long as he stays reasonably straight and doesn't act like a pig against my left leg I will tolerate it. It's also the side he licks with his tongue when longing - so probably his previous rider was crooked and rode with way too much right rein - and that made him so stiff on the left and not willing to bend around the left leg.

Anyways, I chipped away at the leg yield that way for a bit until he got the idea (sometimes a rider needs to be happy with "winning ugly" for the sake of the horse's mental health) and picked up the trot. We did some trot-walk transitions on the rail, stretched out a bit, and then back to the free-walk.

I wanted him to halt very quickly from just my seat aids on a loose rein, so I worked on that for 5 mins, and now all I have to do is shift my pelvis a bit and weight the back part of my legs and he halts immediately and stands quietly. That's a safety thing for me. Also it sets them up for obedient half halts later on!

Tomorrow his owner is riding him. I hope he's better for her than he was today!

GO CANUCKS GO!