Axel's Turn

Luckily when I got out to the barn tonight the one hunter girl was just finishing up her ride. I groomed Axel in the crossties while she finished riding. She had some of the big barn doors open so it was pretty nice in the arena. I had been debating between going down the road and riding inside. Since it was seemingly deserted I decided to ride in the arena and do some video taping. I wanted to see if I could get Axel's new found canter departure on film.

Cody decided to have a complete fit while we were in the barn. He's been fairly okay lately but tonight he decided it was the end of the world that he was alone. I lunged Axel a bit, he was good at the trot but had some issues with the canter particularly to the left (I think). Lots of random bucking.

When I mounted we had an okay walk for a while. The trot was also just okay. He offered a couple canters instead of the trot probably just from his leg hurting. It took some work to keep him at a trot. I only asked for the canter a few times but when he offered it I tried to keep him going. That's what is going to kill me tomorrow. I already worked on a bit of trot on Wednesday and am sore from that. Heh oh well.

The barn owner came in to work with one of her horses so while she groomed and tacked Axel and I cooled off by working on square corners and some small circles to try and get to some turns on the haunches and forehand. I should spend more time working on that stuff with Axel since trotting and cantering isn't really our forte. Which means a lot more work on the ground. He's kind of frustrating because he doesn't pick up on that stuff as fast as Cody does. We'd still be spinning in circles if I was trying to get him to bend like Cody does.