October 13th

Henry must have known that I started a new blog about him and he wanted to make the best first impression because I had the best ride to date on him tonight.

I met Sean up at the barn so that I could get on as early as possible since it's getting dark so early (and it's only going to get worse- ugh). I groomed Henry, mostly in the saddle area because he was super dirty (ok not that dirty but I like my horse to glisten) and needed to be hosed off to get him really clean (keep in mind I bathed him Sunday and groom him every day but Wednesday which is his day off). Then tacked him up and went down to the arena to lunge. I always lunge him before I ride to get that little bit of edge off of him. We are having some "who's the boss" issues lunging to the right- but tonight was much better then Tuesday night.

I hopped on him at 6:00 pm ish (I asked Sean what time it was so that I could get a good 20-30 min ride and still give him a good cleaning up after our ride haha) and got right to work. He was a bit lookie like normal but I put my mind to it that I wasn't going to care tonight. I marched him around the whole arena- circling through the jumps, around the jumps, by the scary stuff outside of the arena and over the polls on the ground. He didn't have any" the world is ending I'm going to go sideways really fast" moments. I was able to relax and really thought about lowering my hands, sitting up taller and enjoying him being good!

We also worked more on our sitting trot which is one of the H A R D E S T things to get with him. He is bouncy like no other. I found that as I was doing the sitting trot, if I wound through and around the jumps it really made him thing and pay attention to me as he wasn't sure where we were going next. This also lead to him coming back to me some (we have a long way to go to get this down) but it was much much better then Tuesday.

I cooled him out on a lose rein and walked all over the arena and then headed back up to the barn to get him hosed off and cleaned before it was super dark. My wonderful hubby then walked Henry for a bit in his cooler after I hosed him off.

We tucked him into his stall and gave him is grain (mix of Equine Sr and Strategy) + vitamins (SmartCombo (http://www.smartpakequine.com/smartcombo-pellets-9473p.aspx?cm_vc=Search) and Electrolytes since we have been having funky weather) and kisses and headed home.

I changed his bit after my ride Tuesday so tonight was the first night in the slow twist snaffle and I think he likes it a lot. He was really relaxing and lengthening down which was awesome.

No picture tonight because Sean had Bayley and she was awake my whole ride. Hopefully I can get some pictures next ride- even if it's just us posing together :)