Pride

Life is good with Theo back in shoes and feeling quite content with himself after a short break for the holidays.  It probably worked out well that he got that time off, he came back eager to work and very curious what I'm up to.  I need to keep that in mind, mi papi responds well to a short vacation and doesn't lose ground.  That could be very useful come February when the horses start struggling with getting sour in the indoor arena.

Yesterday, all my frostbite seemed so far away

We did a serpentine down a straight line of poles with 10m turns in our lesson today.  That was focused on getting the haunches swinging (instead of him falling on his inside shoulder and face) and we had a couple of good passes with solid power and carriage.  It turned out to be a good strength exercise and another one that's going in the portfolio for future use.  After a couple of passes, I put him in a canter to break up the tension and get him thinking forward again.  Repetition is not Theo's friend.  Cantering around the ring was super easy for him compared to what he'd just done so he carried himself nicely, offering lots of power and even some suspension in his usually clunky canter.

Trainer A turned around, looked at him, and said 'he just looks so happy'.  He felt happy, too.  I read and watch a lot of stuff by Dr. Reiner Klimke and he frequently mentions how a confident, comfortable horse will feel 'proud' of what he's done when he learns something new or does a difficult exercise well.  That's what Theo felt like.  He felt proud, lifting his neck and pushing on the contact as he cantered down the long side. 

What more could anyone want as a result of their work?