The Wow and the Blah

In some ways, our rides this week have been rather boring.  They have been a whole lot of blah with weird, unexpected moments of wow.

Monday was our first day in the saddle after my shopping trip and the first day of what I'm hoping is about to be Walker's month of intensive training.

I had just went and watched a horse show on the weekend and had grand visions of things I was going to do with my horse.  I watched a ton of kids get bucked, reared and thrown off in many epic fashions, and I thought, "Hey, I could probably do that in a horse show" and set off home to see if maybe we could prepare for one of the fun shows this summer. (Don't hold your breath.  I'm working on it).

Needless to say my grand ambitions started with a reality check.  Walker was actually behaving all week, but I just didn't feel like we were connecting, and not just through the back, if you know what I mean.

Then, on Monday, I did some rein backs and this is where the magic happened.  He started rounding his back more than I've ever experienced before, so much so that I literally felt two feet higher off the ground.  I decided to take advantage of this feeling and ask for a canter immediately.

And lovely.  Just lovely.  Not just a connected departure, but a full out collected departure.  His whole front end literally lifted up as he pushed off the ground, and although he did not have the stamina to maintain it for more than one full stride, he gave me several of these wonderful departures during each of my rides throughout the week.  I would rein back, ask for the departure, canter for 3 strides and stop so that I could encourage quality canter instead of just forwardness.

Unfortunately, I could not get the same feeling with the trot no matter how hard I tried, but hey, it's just one more trick to slip into my back pocket.

Showing off his mad ground tying skillz

Then on Thursday, I decided to ride in the outdoor arena and lo and behold, he was pretty good.  He didn't put a foot out of the arena once (ok, so he put it out once, but tripping and falling out of the arena doesn't count!).

We managed to canter circles without him running off a cliff even though all the other jerk horses were outside watching and calling to us.  They were literally all lined up along the edge of their pastures which is very close to the arena, but Walker didn't give them the time of day.  I was so proud at his wonderful behaviour, that I stopped the ride after 30 minutes on a good note and let him go back outside with his buddies.

I mean really.  I left him like this and wandered down the hall and he just stayed
put with the door to freedom open behind him

Unfortunately, he was lame today so thus ends my intensive training streak until he is feeling better.