Last Tuesday, my friend D was busy and allowed me to do a flat lesson on her mare, Willow. Some of you will remember seeing Willow before, her and P have been going steady for several years now and have neighboring stalls.
Willow wants cookies
With Willow the focus is mostly on keeping her straight and forward under saddle as her two main evasions are sticking her hip out and not wanting to go forward. She was really good and I had a great time playing around with her. As a bonus, she doesn’t keep her head as low as my boys, so I didn’t have my hands on the neck and my reins too long all ride!
I’ve been having a lot of fun being able to focus on Phoenix as my main riding pony. He really does allow me to focus on myself more when I ride, which is a good thing. I rode him on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week, Saturday being a flat lesson day. Monday we did a nice bareback hack and chatted with my barn manager who was in the indoor walking a colicing school horse (who thankfully recovered).
His dreams have come true!
Wednesday I was feeling a bit out of it and managed to drop my cooler which Phoenix was then terrified of until right at the end of our ride when I wanted to take a picture of him being scared, lol.
Cooler down
On Thursday I finally pulled off a counter canter figure eight on Mr. P, which I have been working up to for a while. He tries so hard to please that he gets really worried about being on the wrong lead and tries to drop to the trot to fix it. I’d been counter cantering the long sides, then long side plus corner, but finally we came through the corner and across the diagonal. It is a fun challenge to work on and I’ll continue to refine that for a while.
Selfie with P
Now the one with him giving the hairy eye ball to a horse coming from the field on our left!
Makes me laugh!
Saturday we had a nice flat lesson. I moved P to a waterford D and he seems to bear down on me less when he gets excited, making it easier to half halt. The lesson involved lots of transitions, which are good for the pony who likes to anticipate.
Sunday was abnormally warm and in the low 50’s, so the boys enjoyed some naked time and I took P out for some grass. Being my main ride has had a positive effect on his waistline. 🙂
Yum, winter grass
No t just his waistline. P has really been building some big muscles!
So glad you’ve been having fun with Mr. P!! He’s just adorable!
Thanks 🙂
So glad you’ve got Mr. P to hang out with and ride while Stampy rehabs!
Not sure what I would do without him!
Sounds like you’ve squeezed in some fab lessons while rehab’ing Stampede.
Keep up the great work with P, he is looking super ♡
It has been fun to do lesson on P. Thanks!
Oh P! Silly P!
He’s always playing around!
So Willow is like your daughter in law? 😉 lol
Exactly! lol.
I’m glad you could ride Willow. It has helped to get a different perspective on her “issues”. And, yes, Willow would be her daughter-in-law. Willow and Phoenix are a hoot together. Phoenix is so possessive of her when we ride together.
They are certainly cute together. Missing our summer field rides of them trying to catch up to each other all the time!
P is such a cutie!! that hairy eyeball pic is pretty funny lol… and a waterford D really helped my mare too when she wanted to lean or pull
I know, he makes me laugh. The thing with P is that I can ride him in pretty much anything so it’s hard to pick what is best.