May 9, 2013

My ponies are so good. Today is the first day this week it hasn’t been dumping buckets from the sky. Which means I got to spend some much needed pony time after work. Simon and I got in a nice hack. Lots of circles and just general hacking. Then we did some side passing over the length of a  jump pole and backing through an L shaped formation of jump poles laying on the ground.

The entire time I was brushing, tacking, untacking and sponging Simon, Linus was woofling my hair and laying his head on my shoulder. He is such a sweet thing.

Linus hasn’t been worked since last Thursday, and was eager to be groomed and tacked up. He loves the attention. I started him off on the lunge line and we picked right up where we left off a week ago. He happily walked, trotted and halted by voice command. He even showed more confidence than last week. Next I spent some time doing basic ground conditioning, leading him around, climbing on the mounting block at his side and jumping up and down while petting his ears and pulling on his mane. I did this on both sides, patting him all over, flapping the irons, rocking the saddle and lots of jumping around and whooping. Followed by good boys and reassuring pats. I also did some softening on his mouth with the reins, getting him to drop his head. Just general ground work.

I wanted to get on him, but no one was around, and since I ride in an open field, I would like someone to be around when I get on him. Hopefully that will work out Saturday afternoon.

Afterwards he sponged off like a champ and followed me around until I put dinner out. What good ponies.