Merry Christmas Plus...

Saturday ended up being a day of turn out for Henry. Bayley needed a nap and the drive to the barn always does it :)

Sunday was another turn out day for Henry... lucky boy got to laid back days!

Monday I rode (in the other saddle i was trying and hated it). Just a hack as Irene was gone but two others were there so it was a nice laid back hack around with friends. Henry was good- got our leads worked on bending at the walk like my trainer said ... he was good and then BAM he saw a tumble weed that was going to eat him alive- so we had to deal with that. But all is fair with a young horse :)

Tuesday I had a lesson. Always lots of work but I am down for it. Lots of "things" came up today to work on- main thing is a balanced canter. He tends to be very heavy and lets me carry him around which I can't do :) So lifting my hands, sitting deep, circling a small circle and occasionally stopping and backing were the keys to get him to carry himself. Now the stopping and backing brought up another thing- he didnt' want to back up. He braced himself and no matter what I did he wasn't moving- in enters trainer with lunge whip to assist the backing effort :) Also the people lunging using the lunge whips scare the poop out of him. He is SURE they are after him with that whip. Another "thing" we dealt with today.

But it ended well and I am feeling confident and competent that I can work through these issues. Juliana then got on him and took him over a few jumps and asked for some flying changed and most of the times he got them!

Kat and Andy came out and took some pictures - THANKS guys!

Juliana jumping Henry :)

We were both pooped!

love this boy!

Working on bending through the corners.. my posture is getting better, still needs work tho!

Good boy!

Heavy horse!

Better about holding his own head haha!

We have such an amazing view from the arena! It was a beautiful day too!

Thursday I will be out again in the morning to ride and hope that some of the things from today will go better :)