First spring ride at home

It was a nice day and some rain is due later in the week so I wanted to make the most of the sunshine. I couldn't decide whether to ride or play or both, and ride bareback, or with the bb pad, or saddle... decision decisions!! I did decide to use the new Parelli Hackamore since they made the comment my 'made' one was too big for him - so here is the red one - looks quite flash doesn't it. It was hard choosing between green, blue, black or red....when my favourite colour is brown! I thought it would clash with his colour but it looks quite smart.

I went for the saddle option just in case I wanted to do some trotting. I laid out the cones again while Garbo waited patiently.

We started with weave at walk, and he was really good at it without me having to use the reins. Then we tried at trot - think the cones need to be a bit further apart for that - it was a bit tight! But he tried really hard.

We then did some figure eight and then we tried a circle at walk and I think I got a really nice bend and no opposition reflex - I was pleasantly surprised at how light he was actually - do you think it could be the hackamore??

We did some sideways along a pole - took us a while to get the right question for that. But we got it in the end. Then we did some point to point at trot (gate to tire) and he didn't stop at the tire so I backed him up about 8 steps. That was a big chew worth!

Then we cantered back to the gate, it was so much fun we trotted back to the tire again just to do it all over. We did it about 3 times in the end. We also just had a bit of a tit for tat walk around the paddock.
After the ride I thought we better do some dentist prep since Amanda is coming on Friday. He was great so fingers crossed.!!




Anyone think of anything else I can do?

I am thinking of doing a clinic in November - maybe I can talk Hana and Jane in joining me and we can have a fab time!