Sunday, January 06, 2008

Warm January Day

It was beyond warm today. Everything was melting and it was 40F. I met Tricia out at the barn for some spring like riding. We donned our light weigh jackets and sunglasses for the ride. I kept up with my plan to keep Cody doing work to build our relationship and some respect. So I tried to drive him into the barn but he needed a little reminder and we had to circle once. He was a little concerned with Kiko being outside and him inside but he was pretty calm about it. Tricia groomed Axel and I worked on Cody. After I tacked him up we did a couple circles to get on the right page. I opted for a saddle since I had no idea what Cody's mood was going to be. He hasn't been ridden in a few months so you never know. Now believe it or not but Axel was really walking out (for Axel) and Cody was lagging behind. Once we finally go out of sight of the barn he was a little better but still lagging behind Axel. Axel was even stepping under himself and carrying his head nice for once. We ended up crossing the bean field through some pretty deep snow. Axel's head was really flying up and down. Cody ended up getting a little sweated up working through that snow. Even in deep snow though, he manages to keep that butter smooth trot. The road back was pretty calm. Only a few times where Cody wanted to trot and I wanted to walk. Nothing like he used to be. When we got back we passed the driveway and I dismounted in the cul-de-sac and walked him up to the barn. We groomed them up a bit and let Axel out. Cody had a few more things to work on. He did a few more circles, at first he was a total spaz but worked back into it. Then we worked on backing out of the barn and up and over the step. After a few tries he really go it. Tricia said he has really started to listen to me. So I'll definitely have to keep up the ground work.

1 comment:

Pony Tail Club said...

You might not have an arena but at least you are getting out and riding! As much as I love to ride, somedays I have to give my self a pep talk to ride, it's just soo cold!