Nice Evening

The hunter girls were having their lesson when I got to the barn tonight so I groomed Cody in the aisle and then did some ground work outside on the grass. Ground work on nice fluffy grass is not an easy task, let me tell you, someone thought it was snack time not work time. I ended up putting on his saddle and riding out in the pasture. Axel was kind enough to leave us alone and actually give us a little challenge to work on. Cody was pretty calm with life but he was slightly concerned that he was out working and Axel was grazing without him. So we worked on that for a while, also the footing is a little more "iffy" so he had to pay attention and I got a bit more of a riding challenge. Thirdly I thought we'd work on some cantering with all the extra space but Cody wasn't on the same page. We couldn't really get the correct lead but we did have plenty of chances to work on controlling "runaways." After a few pretty bad run offs Cody got the picture and paid attention to where I wanted to turn. He still had some issues with relaxing and collecting but I guess you take what you can get. Still working on the rein back and we spent a little time working on the turn on the haunches. For some reason I am better at turn on the forehand from the ground and turn on the haunches under saddle. We un-tacked in the aisle and backed out of the barn.

The hunter girls finished up so I brought Axel in and groomed him. Found a wood tick in his forelock but that was the only one. He was very patient for grooming and would have probably taken a nap if I had let him. We did a couple circles lunging, there was a lot less fuss over the canter tonight. We spent a few minutes on our turns again and it seemed like perhaps he was finally catching on and we did some backing as well. I rode the walk for a while and then we worked on the trot in two point. I was hoping that two point would help get me off that foot and he could trot out for a while maybe work on stretching his neck and lifting his back. It went alright to the right but he was pretty unhappy to the left even in two point. I didn't fight with him too long, I want him to figure out it's the same to the right and the left especially when we're on a straight-a-way. Rein back under saddle is still reluctant with Axel but I'll keep working. I spent some time trying to get him to do turn on the haunches as well.

After my ride I went and watched one of the other boarders do some drill work with some of her fellow mounted posse members. She let me ride Danny around a bit before they got started working. It was a gorgeous sunset so I had to take some photos. Tomorrow: farrier day.