Leo Lately

Mini-event recap will be coming soon, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about my main man.


Leo has been doing incredibly well.  He is progressing at a rate that surprises and impresses us (me, Trainer K, and Trainer A) basically every day.  He is strong enough now to carry himself in a frame at the trot and at the canter when various gadgets are attached to him - typically a pair of very loose side reins, surcingle, and training bridle.  When I lunge him in a flat halter, he seeks contact for the first minute or two before realizing that the bit isn't there.  He stays relaxed at the walk and trot, and has significantly smoother canter departures.  Three weeks ago, he could manage 4 left lead canter rotations on the lunge in a flat halter before he would fall out of it, and 3 rotations on the right lead.  On Monday, he essentially managed to hold himself up for infinite canter circles in both directions.



He gets ridden by Trainer K about once a week and the rest of the days (aside from his day off) are for various groundwork exercises.  With a rider, he is still somewhat panicky.  He doesn't get quite as giraffe-y as he used to, though, and he calms down way faster than before.  From last week to this week, Trainer K said that he is already feeling significantly less lateral at the canter.

Rockin' the $10 clearance halter


Today I was able to watch 90% of Trainer K's ride on him, and they looked phenomenal.  There was small-children-filled lesson going on in the ring at the same time, and although Leo was quite distracted to begin with, he really was able to focus on his job by the end and put forth some really lovely movements.  And then...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I GOT TO RIDE MY HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the walk.  On a loose rein.  To cool him out.  But also to see how well he could do the whole walking on a loose rein thing while the small children were still cooling their horses out.  And with only a couple tiny hiccups (aka moments of prancy trot steps), MY HORSE WALKED ON A LOOSE REIN WITH HIS NOSE BASICALLY BURIED IN THE GROUND AND MOVED OFF MY LEG FOR LIKE 15 MINUTES!  :D :D :D :D 

The excitement and good news doesn't stop there.  Trainer K says that after another week of training, we'll most likely be able to add in lessons, with me in the saddle.  And...my one tiny goal for Leo was to take him on one outing before the end of the season.  When I got him, I really was hoping that I would be able to ride him in the local Haunted Hunter Pace.  Now that the barn is officially attending, and Barn BFF S has agreed to be my partner, I decided to take a deep breath, cross my fingers, and ask Trainer K - "Is it an unrealistic goal for me to take Leo to the Haunted Hunter Pace, or should I start thinking about which lesson horse to ride?" 

Guys.  She said that she thinks that taking Leo is a totally reasonable goal!  I am going to take my horse to a "show"!  In 20 days!   I got to ride my horse, found out a timeline for regular riding being reincorporated, and found out that we are almost certainly going on a field trip, in the same day!  Literally so freaking happy right now.

Love this crazy monster.

Comments

  1. EventingSaddlebredStyleOctober 6, 2016 at 8:16 PM

    Yay! That is so exciting!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TrainwreckInTealOctober 7, 2016 at 4:24 AM

    Yay!! I have a friend interested in the hunter pace too so maybe I can go and we can finallyyyy have a blogger meet up!! 😁

    ReplyDelete
  3. KateRoseOctober 7, 2016 at 7:47 PM

    That is wonderful!! Love the zebra halter too :P

    ReplyDelete

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