It's a beautiful day...

Well... it's sure been a long time; long story, and I'm not going to go into it: but I will pick up the Pinto story again from just over a week ago.

Classes have started again, at the riding school that is, and I eventually plucked up the courage to ask my instructor if I could take lessons on the club horses rather than Pinto... and I have, it's been fun; but Pinto needs his exercise too so we started lunging again, or even from scratch judging by our previous attempts.



Things have been going very, very well, much better than I had originally hoped actually. We have gone from being scared, not going in one direction and bogging off whenever the pressure got too much, to circling nice and politely, with a nice active trot, learning to stretch down into side reins, and wonder of wonders, being able to do it holding a whip. Of course it is slow business, I can’t expect perfection immediately, but I would say we are 200% better than 6 months ago.

Now to the riding :oD Actually with all the lunging I hadn’t actually ridden Pinto for several weeks (*hangs head in shame*) before Saturday 06 Oct! For a change I managed to get to the yard in the break between lessons so we had a really positive lunging session, then back into the box for ½ an hour while I had a drink and gathered the riding tack. I have to say, Pinto was most unimpressed to be presented with a saddle so soon after doing “work” but we got ready and went out anyway!

We had an absolutely fantastic ride, and for the first time since July had an intentional canter up “our” canter hill. This time it was much longer, long enough for me to get the feel of things… long enough for me to enjoy it! (*yay*) We also trotted almost the entire length of the long canter trail, making me a very, very happy bunny!

And on to today!

Another wonderful day today: We are now up to 5+1 minutes of trotting on each rein in our lunging sessions. I am starting to see some muscle definition in Pintos haunches, and he is really starting to get the idea of the side reins, and is now starting to stretch down more consistently.

This time we went out on a hack almost immediately, Pinto finished the lunging session quite warm and although I cooled him down I didn’t want him getting completely cold before our hack. Today we did our usual loop backwards, including trotting along the canter path in the opposite direction and then cantering up the hill from the other side… then cantering up the hill nearest to home! I was completely grinning the entire way, and starting to feel that I might be able to enjoy this canter lark!

Hopefully there should be more to report tomorrow!