Wild man

Today was a fun day! I met Kelli and Peri and we went for a 30 minute hack, finding as many uphills as we could. We mostly walked and chatted. While I bravely fought off the cobwebs in the lead. :) We did a little bit of trotting too. Then we headed back to the XC field so I could do my hill work. We did about 20 minutes together and then both Peri and Kelli had people show up that they knew. They went off to talk to them while Fleck and I finished our 30 min set. Which pissed Fleck off. ;) He wanted to go see all the new ponies, so it got a little bit more entertaining. But not too bad. Then I decided to do 10 minutes of trot work and it got even more exciting. ;) He was ready to go. I let him have a little canter on the flat ground and then we did our trot work. He was worked up and kept breaking to the canter but we managed some decent powerful uphill trots for our 10 minutes. By then everyone had left us, so I let him go join Kelli and Peri in the jump ring.

We did a teeny bit of work but he was amped up. Someone had set up the two stone walls as a skinny line and it just looked so tempting, I couldn't resist. Fleck jumped it happily. So then I took him to the outside line, which was set at novice maybe. He jumped it awkwardly because I did nothing to help him. So then I came back and actually rode it, and he jumped it much better. And guess what?! He landed happily on the right lead and didn't scoot or scamper off. He landed happily and kept cantering happily. It wasn't quiet or slow, but it wasn't rushed or panicked either. Yay! We got a nice happy canter pretty quickly and quit. Kelli and Peri said he looked better than he has in a LONG time. And I could still feel the slight hesitation on the right front, but it wasn't bad. Considering he has arthritis there and we weren't doing anything for it - no bute, no previcox, no injections - yet, I was pleased.

Then I mentioned that I was tempted to do the big stone wall oxer but was going to be good and not do it. So Kelli told me to hop on Arwyn and take her over the outside line, which was a solid novice, if not training height. So I did. And it was fun. Arwyn was perfect. She was just how I like the ride. A bit game and forward but balanced and ridable. She cantered up to that line and I was able to adjust her and then send her forward and she nailed it. Then Kelli told me to do the oxer. Okay! Twist my arm. ;) And she locked onto that and nailed it too. It was a lot of fun!