Yay for Cody!

Today was not perfect, by far. But after a very slow walk from the pasture to the round pen, Cody actually paid me some attention. I groomed him first while he looked longingly at his girl friend on the other side of the round pen fence. I set up a couple ground poles to play with for a change of pace. I started by just moving him around a bit. He actually did pretty good with me driving his hind quarters away from me. He did really well stepping over the poles and even tried the circle game a bit. We couldn't manage the yo-yo game yet but after some leading around the pen and driving his hindquarters, he started following me around licking his lips. He did great when I asked him to come towards me (half of the yo-yo game). None of these was flawless of course, but I think it was a good step. Even after I took his halter off he kept following me. Yay for Cody!

At this point everyone had come up and was hanging around swatting flies so I haltered Axel and brought him into the paddock to groom and get tacked up. He was slightly less than willing at this point and wouldn't let me lead him out of the paddock so I got on and tried to ride him out of the area. It was still like pulling teeth but we did make it down to the next gate. Things picked up a bit and we once again got the gate open to cross the bridge without dismounting. We cruised around the new little trail that Tony had cut and got spooked by a couple deer jumping out of the creek. How I managed to stay on is beyond me. He jumped about 3 steps to the side and I didn't move quite as quickly as he did. But I saved myself and stayed on. Luckily he only took three steps and then stopped to see what he was spooking at.

We made it out alive and went up the hill and through the woods as usual. In the clearing we had a couple good trots with no bucking this time ;) and even had a little canter that started with Axel's tiny buck but settled out nicely. The nice trotting just made it more evident that Axel was being naughty on Tuesday. We headed back to the barn where Axel had a couple cookies and a nice roll in the dirt. I shot some photos since I haven't taken too many lately. Nothing spectacular though.

The vet is coming out on Tuesday to do their Coggins tests so we can go on this trail ride in September. Which reminds me to get some pledges going. Then I have my usual dressage lesson. I think I'll ask Steph if she wants to go for a ride with Cody and Corey after my lesson. Gotta get those two boys working a bit before the trail ride. I've also gotta wash those polo wraps from the last trail ride, Axel keeps kicking himself in the leg and the polo wraps should help especially on narrow trails.