Not a whole lot exciting on my last trip to the barn. I decided to give Axel a shot without any bute this time. Unfortunately he was having an off day so I rode bareback in the arena for 5 minutes at the most. So that was a little disappointing.
I tacked up Cody and rode him in the arena while J rode Logan and tried to convince him that Cody wasn't going to chase him. Cody tried to convince me he'd rather be napping but with a little help from Mr. Dressage Whip we got a little inspired. Just some trotting and a tiny bit of canter so I could convince him I could ride without yanking on his face. He's very inconsistent so we'll be cruising along just fine when all of a sudden he surges forward and leaves me behind and usually yanking on his face. I haven't quite decided what I want to do to work on this issue yet but I'll come up with something.
I generally spend a lot of time and effort trying to keep Cody on the rail which right now means he's nearly always counter bend and my inside leg is always dying from exhaustion. We had been working on a little bit of leg yielding and things like that which Cody never seems to understand until he wants to avoid doing something else. Frequently I'll push him to the rail and instead he'll either speed up or spin around like I asked for a turn on the forehand. He actually executed a very nice turn on the forehand for me on Tuesday even though that was not what I was asking for. So I played along and kept asking and insisted he go around a full 180 degrees. Good to know he can do that stuff just wish he'd do it when I asked!
After that I worked on getting the brush through his tail (need to get more show sheen the miracle groom doesn't work as well) and I was able to clean up his bits and pieces again with no kicking. Next time he gets a bath (with warm water) I'll see if I can convince him to let me clean him up with a sponge and soapy water, works much better than just a baby wipe.
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