Today’s ride was a bit more adventurous than we planned.

I moved my lessons from 6am to 7am. If I get ready quickly, I get to sleep in until 5!

It started off with a shuffle away from the mounting block. I’ve written about how that can make me spiral, but instead I just said “Ok bud, let’s take a walk.” Did a lap around the arena, breathed, stayed calm, and he let me climb aboard.

*whew*

Then there was a beautiful sunrise that we just stood and watched for a bit.

We did a warmup that was a couple of passes down the archery lane that went great. We like to do the YMCA as a warmup & we did the Village People proud. I have been wanting him to be relaxed enough down the lane to stop and sniff or nibble a bite of grass, and he finally did it! He was chill, he was happy, and we were vibing.

Then one of the the self-care boarders walked by leading her black mare. They looked stressed. C. asked if they were okay, and she said she thought the mare was colicking. Oh boy. We ended up moving over to the middle arena to give her some space. The black mare was in the round pen so she could move around and hopefully eat some grass. As she was led away, all of the other horses started calling out. Griffy was overwhelmed and a bit anxious.. He power walked. He even did a little nervous trot.

Me? I breathed. I brought him back down to a power walk. We got on with our lesson (after he had to stick his nose over the fence and try to say hello to the black mare….in his defense she was pretty cute.)

We did a little trot work. He was pretty settled by that point, so C. said we were going to canter. Ok. My issue has been that I freeze up when we launch into the canter, because I don’t know if it’s going to be normal or a bullet train. But I’ve been prepping for this. Breathe. Relax. We’re gonna go with him. I asked for the canter. He broke into a few strides, then came down into the rocket trot. I was ready. We posted. We flew around the corner. We had steering, for the most part. I asked for another canter. He did a few more strides. Walk break, direction change. This direction is difficult for him, he likes to throw his shoulder in, but we have been working on it. We did a few canter strides, and boom – done!!

Every lesson he’s the best boy. But today I deserved a cookie too!

Oh, and the black mare is ok!