Not much accomplished, but none the less fun.

Last Sunday we had a nice ride in the outdoor. We did things a little different, we ended up cantering more towards the beginning of our ride rather than later. He seemed a bit more supple in the canter when we did it this way. Also we did a bit of polework.

Monday we took down the jumps down to set up some new pole patters. A nice circle, a straight line, and a zig-zag. Poncho was going lovely until he saw the blue gate on the side. Then he was quite determined it was out to get him. He was pretty much on the verge of meltdown mode any second. But I was so proud of him for holding it together - he kept his cool. We ended up getting some nice trot work over the poles, atleast when we could maneuver ourselves away from the gate. Silly pony.

Then I had a busy, busy week at work and didn't get back out to the barn until yesterday. I got a little over ambitious and wanted to go out on the trail. We did go out, but it wasn't pretty or productive. He was pretty spooky from a tractor at the neighboring farm. We stayed out for a little while. However I wasn't able to bring him around. So we left. I wanted to end out a good note so we headed to the ring so I could get him to gather his thoughts again. After I got him listening, somewhat there was another horse in the ring, we headed to the gelding field, FINALLY, to ride. He was super out there. Could not have been more proud.



Today I put my spurs back on. I did also order some soft touch ones since I know Pony doesn't really like my regular ones. However he did need to wake up to my leg a bit. So back on they went. Well I don't know what was up with Poncho but he had an attitude from the get go. We did some polework (like what we did last time) then just trotted around to loosen up. When I went to ask for the canter he almost immediately got 'tude. He got a bit bracey and the tried to throw in a little buck. Then I kind of went down hill from there. He didn't really want to stay in the canter when I got him going and he kept on bucking sporadically. I at some point took off my spurs in a vain attempt. He was still really jerkish. And he did still give me one real big buck, as in I almost went flying out of the ring buck, so I cracked him hard on the neck with my whip. He settled down a bit after that and we were able to get in some quality trot and canter work. I was determined we would end on a good note so I'm pleased it happened.

Then he got a nice bath and we hung out for awhile while he wore his cooler to dry off a little before turning him back out.