It was a chilly night—right around freezing—perfect for riding horses with winter coats.

I rode both horses in the arena last night.  My ride with Cole wasn’t consistent, and I just couldn’t seem to get my body in sync with his at the trot.  Remember, he has a huge and impulsive trot which can be tough to sit and I consider impossible to post.  I have found that you need to plug into the side-to-side motion while keeping the movement slightly forward, too.  This gets the best performance from him.  Though he was trying hard to comply, I couldn’t connect and my feet were flying around in the stirrups.  It wasn’t until the ride was over and I remembered that I gave blood the day before which always makes me weak the next day.  I hope that was the problem, and I will be back to normal on Friday. 

He has perfected his turn on the haunches to the right.  It is transforming to a western reining horse spin.  He loves it.  To the right is a slow, one step at a time maneuver.  It’s just like the other way was last week. I am sure it will come around with more clicking.

My ride with Cruiser was great.  He has a normal trot, so he doesn’t push me as hard, physically.  After our warm up, he became quite energized.  He was happy to work in the direction he doesn’t like.  He became very, very steady, much straighter and took regular contact.  For the first time this winter, he actually started to pay attention to my half halts, and I felt him rounding up underneath me.  He is still carrying his head too high, but I am not sure if his thyroid tumor interferes with his head carriage or not.  Just feeling his body rounding—without his neck rounding was still a delight.  My sister saw me work him last weekend, and she thinks we can reclaim some of our former glory.  After last night, I think I can agree with her.  I will have him moving lovely by the time trail season starts, and we will lose it all—again.

We also started working on our circles.  They need a lot of work, but he did improve just over this ride.  Since he used to have terrific circles, I think that is a goal that is in reach.