Just in the nick of time and the pinnacle of Poncho's weekend.

To start off I'd like to mention that Poncho has been "punished" by the barn. Apparently they think he's been liberating his friends from their grazing muzzles. Because apparently they are too stupid to realize they can rub them off, or pop them off (some have breakaway ones). Even though I have witnessed some of them do just that. But noo it must be Poncho ruining their best laid plans. So poor little man has been kicked into the "diet" field again (atleast it's only at night time - although that does mean he misses his friends). Poor, poor Poncho.

Moving on yesterday started out as a beautiful sunny day, a little cool but beautiful non-the-less. I got out to the barn around 11 and it was just starting to get slightly cloudy - no worries though. I went to get Poncho and he whinnied for me and came halfway to me (come on he can't give me coming all the way over - too much effort) so I met him halfway. He was so super calm while I was grooming and tacking up. To speed up the process he even stretched his legs out for me. It was priceless. I decided to ride out in the gelding field so we cut across the ring so as to not walk across to much gravel. (I think I'm going to have to put shoes back on him for the summer BOO.) Since he did just exfoliate his whole sole on his fronts. We lucked out and managed to snag a few minutes riding with another lady at the barn. I love the opportunity for Poncho to work with others and still keep his focus. He was a smidge uppity jogging and jigging sporadically. No biggie I mean for the last two weeks he's only been worked 3 days a week when he clearly needs and likes 5-6 days. Once our riding buddy finished we headed to the ring to blow off some steam with some nice trot work. I didn't feel like pushing the canter. Good thing too. He gave some lovely trot work and is improving on softening to the bit with each ride. After about 8 minutes of that we called it a day. And once I turned him out and was giving him a nice wither scratch (I might add he liked it soo much he groomed me back too so cute) it started drizzling. So I figured okay a little mist while I work Nite no biggie. Then it really started to rain. DAMN I didn't bring my rain coat. So I called up mom and she gave me the okay to not bother. Score. As I was leaving Midnite was hiding out in the run-in. Poncho true to form was out in the open getting poured on. What can I say he's a nature lover.

Today I was planning on hacking out in the mare field with Mom and Midnite. Poncho was ecstatic. He finally infiltrated the lady field with all their lady like smells. He was nice and forward and coming on to the bit. However Miss Nite decided she was not having it there could be no boy in her field. She got real cranky and unresponsive to mom. So we left and headed to the ring. Poor Poncho he was so upset that he had to leave since he had finally reached his ultimate goal. However in the ring he was a superstar. Even though it was majorly sloppy from all the rain (luckily mainly only on one side). His trot work was some of the best I've had in a while. His canter to the right wasn't half bad. To the left he just didn't want to give me the lead, he finally did but I had to work my ass off for it. Then we took a mini break. To keep up with his memory we were going to do the cross rail again. I clearly need to come up with a new plan of action for our rides now that we are adding a few jumps in. He gets so frazzled with his lead issue that jumping is just too much. After two tries and knocking it down I hopped off to fix it. Then walked around to regroup some. We came at it from the other direction this time. It took several tries he just wants to rush. (Que placing poles next time -coulda, woulda, shoulda) Finally we managed to get over it twice. It wasn't pretty by any means but I praised him like crazy anyways. We just have to work through this small mind block he's got going on and then we'll be golden. I know he can jump like a beast.