What's this? Aidyn jumps?

Well, he does...or he *thinks* he does. Hehe.

With all of the rain and muck we have still been hacking over to ride daily. After the four day hiatus we took at the beginning of the week, we have vowed to never, ever skip riding that much again. So off we trek, through the squishiness...which Aidyn is not fond of. At all. He walks as slowly as possible while looking everywhere and generally avoiding me at all costs. Hmm...too bad Aunt Katie lent me some spurs! Teehee.

Aidyn's newest fear is Mr. Stump. Mr. Stump is a deranged looking tree stump that lets us know we have reached the dressage arena. Mr. Stump is evil and terrifying. Mr. Stump sends us flying backwards into our buddy Jay-R.

Once in the indoor, it's time to assess the situation. Today was a mixture of things to work on. We started with a good working walk both directions, concentrating on straightness through his body and turning off my outside rein. Bulgy shoulder is our biggest problem tracking both directions. Didn't have him softening today as much as the last few rides, but I wasn't too concerned about that. He did go forward and was MUCH better in the canter departs today. Will get the wrong lead occasionally but eventually catches on. WHAT AN AMAZING CANTER MY HORSE HAS! I actually sat it today and was so excited at how lovely it is, even in it's current strung-out unbalanced condition. Yippeeeeeee....

Now for the big news which Aidyn was very proud of. A few little cross-rails set up in the arena of course were too tempting to pass up. We trotted over all three, even the super scary striped one, and I'm proud to say my little man couldn't have cared less.

One thing I have noticed is that if we take too long of a walk break, he mentally and physically shuts down..so I need to take shorter walk breaks and go back to work.

Better elbows for me today, but still focus on sitting up, back and keeping my eyes UP...