We started retraining in preparation for Mossy’s upcoming bootcamp in May with Rachael Hill-Jordan while work is having an outage.  Fed at 7am and scooped stalls while he ate some of his breakfast.  He doesn’t seem to mind much that he doesn’t get his whole breakfast first thing.  At around 730 I pull him out and tack up with a surcingle and side reins.  I recently put a drop nose band on his bridle to keep him from messing with the bit and opening his mouth the whole time.  The bit is low enough so I know he isn’t trying to get away from it.  Even without the bit, he does silly things with his mouth.  I had his teeth floated in January so I am pretty sure it’s just a habit he picked up at the track while he was bored in a stall. 

We worked in the round pen side of the arena so we can free lounge.  I let him run around for a little to get some energy out since he hadn’t been out the day before.  After about 7-10 minutes he slowed down and has a calm trot.  I halted him and put on the side reins and sent him back to the rail.  We only worked for about 30 minutes, trotting both ways trying to keep him calm.  He eventually started dropping his head and relaxing.  I put some trot poles out which he HAD to canter the first 5 times around, but slowed down and relaxed again into a nice trot.  I pulled the poles away and had his canter both sides.  His canter is very fast and unbalanced.  I am not sure if he is going faster because he doesn’t have the strength to slow down and keep it balanced, doesn’t know any better, or just has that much energy.  Brought him back to a slow relaxed trot, and ended the session on a good controlled note.