Saturday Ride

So prior to the annual get together at the Ranch I went out to ride Axel and groom everyone so they were semi-presentable for guests. It's time to get back to work for Axel and I don't think he's totally happy about that. The pasture is really wet so we didn't want to risk sliding around and also ripping up the grass so we went for the bean field again. Steph was riding Kalani as he needs a lot more time under saddle. The bean field is still super nice and I hope they don't plow for a long time :>

One of my goals for Axel is for me to stop nagging. Squeeze, click, crop. But some how he knows when that's my goal and goes really well on the squeeze or the squeeze, click. But hey, anything that keeps me from having to constantly kick is fine by me. Though he still requires a lot of leg to bend and all that so I'm pretty sore even today. We did some trotting in a not so nice frame. We did some walking and some figure eights in a really good frame to the left, not so much to the right. We even did some cantering. He's pretty good going right with the incorrect lead. Er I think it's going right, now I can't remember. I know it was the wrong lead but he even though about framing up for it. And we made a circle at the canter. Both of which I think are firsts. So I'll take it. We'll work on leads later. After a few times cantering he wasn't so pleased being asked to do it more so things got a little hairy at that point. Speed trotting. But we're slowing working up to a nice extended walk. Slowly, very very slowly. And we're getting pretty good at a square halt.

Kalani was having forward issues but finally worked out of it after about a half hour. He was quite a sweaty mess. Axel is at least up to being able to trot for a half hour without sweating too much. On the way back Axel and I had a couple little trots on the buckle so he can start to learn to stretch out his neck when allowed.