I have to admit, I was a bit nervous last week. Hurricane Irene was bearing down on Connecticut with a vengeance and there wasn't much anyone could do about it. We prepped the barn and pens, bedded the sheds and reinforced fencing and then just had to wait. It's the waiting that gets to you.
All that hard work paid off however and the horses made it through okay. Over 60% percent of the town the barn is in lost power, but by some miracle the barn and Sally's house wasn't amid that number. The only casualty was a section of fencing in an empty paddock that got blown down. Everything else stayed put!
Before the hurricane hit I rode UK almost everyday.English, western, bareback.... The video below is from one of the days I rode him bareback. He'd been really good undersaddle the day before.
I gave him yesterday off, as I rode him on the flat Tuesday and really made him work. We did lots of lateral work and transitions. Then just to see how he'd do I begin doing some counter-canter exercises. We were able to pick up a lead, change directions and then keep cantering all the way around without loosing the lead. I was pretty impressed. We finished up by doing simple lead changes in the center of a figure eight. He was really good so ended on that happy note.
I'm dreading teaching him how to do a flying change. I hate doing flying changes. It might have something to do with the fact that Jake would never do a flying change on the flat, he always refused. If you were jumping a course he would get his changes every time and not care, just never ask him for one on the flat or you would be punished.
Well, I'm off to go feed the barn, toodles!
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