Back in the swing of things!

So I rode this morning, despite wanting to stay in my warm comfy bed!  J had been kept inside this morning, as I had requested, and he seemed happy to see me by giving me "kisses" and nuzzling my hair.  I didn't have a ton of time, so I quickly ran a brush over him, stretched his shoulders and got a couple good "pops" and tacked him up.  No lunging today as he was very quiet and content while tacking him up.  I ran through my usual warm-up routine except this time I did lots of big figures and turns on a long rein in one hand, just using my seat to steer him.  He was going really nice off my seat and seemed very happy to go forward.

I picked up my reins and started working on the exercises we did in the lesson on Thursday- doing lots of 15 meter circles around the arena, asking him to bend to the inside, then use my inside leg to move to the outside rein and take bigger steps underneath himself.  I was so happy with how quickly he got with the program and with hardly an attitude about it!  He was quicker off my leg, much more flexible and supple in the bridle.  I kept out of my hole and that definitely contributed to our success today.  We worked in the trot and canter, doing our consecutive circles all around the arena.  Both gaits were pretty good, although I had to be very careful in the canter as it is really easy to overbend him, which then forces his outside shoulder to pop out when I apply the inside leg.  So I had to play around with that and figure out the right amount of bend to complete the exercise correctly.  We did a couple leg yields each direction and a couple trot/halt/trot transitions.  I ended with some freewalk work, which is getting noticeably better as his contact is getting more and more honest.  He is getting much better going from freewalk to medium walk too, since I am not restricting him so much and trusting him to be more honest with the contact.

So it was a very successful day and I was happy with his work today.  He was much more focused, content in his work and agreeable about everything.  I was definitely happy that I had drug my butt out of bed and into the cold for a ride like that!