Ups and downs

Yesterday Reffy cantered in side reins for the first time. It was a bit of a hot mess. Lol. To the left he had some problems picking up the correct lead, and after finally getting him on it, he had no brain left to go back to trotting in a productive way. Gahhhhh. Luckily, his lead was no problem to the right, and he gave me a lovely couple strides of canter on the bit. Hooray! Still no focus for trotting after though. At least his melt down was over doing something new instead of just losing his brain.

I almost didn't work him today, but since I have a lesson on Sunday, I sucked it up and ventured back out to lunge around 7 pm. Thankfully he was all business and went about his job without any fuss. The left canter was still sticky but I tried to let him trot into the corner a bit after I asked him to put his balance where it needed to be to pick up the correct lead. He definitely just needs to be stronger to get it on the circle. No big. And eureka, his trot work after cantering was not an epic fail! Such a smart boy. I took a couple videos so I could post screen shots**, sadly I always remember to record him when he's going left and not as nice and consistently round as he is to the right. Oh well. I'm also re-posting a pic from one of his first sessions in side reins so you can see the difference, not only in his body, but also his stride! He's gone from lookin like a quarter horse to actually starting to resemble a sport horse. I sent the shots to Megan and she says he looks like a completely different guy. Way to go Reffy!

I also took a trip to horse girl Disneyland today, or Horseman's Outlet for you normal people, and picked up a new dressage bridle, longer bit (no more Pony leftovers) and a couple pairs of full-seat breeches for myself. Yay for buying things! And I looked at jump saddles on consignment. Darn my little butt. All the ones I'm interested in getting my hands on were like 18s. Boo. Oh well. I'll just keep looking and saving my pennies.

Tomorrow the farrier comes to do Ref's feet. I'm still on the fence about whether I want to try to keep him barefoot behind for the rest of the winter or put shoes on. Guess I'll have to chat with our guy, Gabe Nonnemaker, and see what he thinks.

Until next time!

**The pictures with the leg wraps are from today.