Yee-Haw!

Sonny and I had a fabulous ride today! Even though it was hot, he was surprisingly active.

We warmed up online and went sideways over the barrel twice. It was only his good direction, but it is a start!

I haven't rode in my saddle lately so I got on and walked around a bit to get adjusted. I really wanted to focus on transitions because his downward transitions have been really slacking lately. During my walk warm up I really monitored my breathing and energy and that seemed to help a lot.

Once I got into the trot he started getting a bit frisky and pulling his normal "I am going canter and dive into the middle of the area so you stop me". I always push him forward, but usually that behavior upsets me so much. Today, I didn't let it bother me at all. I put a smile on my face and YEE HAW off we went! I really pushed him and played a passenger lesson. Thankfully, I have a really good seat. I felt like we were bouncing off of walls and going all different directions but surprisingly, I enjoyed it. Normally I like to go back to my dressage background and hope for a collected canter along the rail and get upset when that isn't how it is. Today was the total opposite: we had cutting horse moves as he dashed to one side of the wall at the last second (sightly scary, with a touch of adrenaline). I think the fact that I was able to laugh it off and hang on made it not so fun anymore because it didn't take long for him to relax into this beautiful canter. Huh. How interesting!

After calming down we had some great trot circles using my only my carrot stick! Hopefully canter circles are in our future. I will be anxious to see how he is the next time I ride!

Such a happy face ;).