Enjoying the Moment

If you haven't noticed, I haven't posted in the last three months. Ooops! (To find out why, you can go here). In that time a lot has changed and I am finally at a point where I am ready to start playing with Sonny again. And boy, does it feel great! Although, April might be my busiest month yet, but at least I got a good 5 sessions in with him towards the end of March.

It was interesting to me how fabulous Sonny was for those few sessions. I go three months without playing with him and I come back and he is better than ever. How interesting! Of course he was a little out of shape and couldn't hold more than 3 canter laps on the 22', but his mental/emotional state were so much better than before. What really blew my mind was that he kept giving me two eyes and two ears. Even backing up, he kept his ears on me. He has never, and I literally mean never, been so willing and respectful. I still can't believe it.

Not only was he giving me awesome faces, he was just all around being totally awesome. Sonny has always been afraid to go sideways over barrels after he sliced his leg on one. The other day while playing at liberty, I asked him to touch the barrel and he knocked it down. I drove him a bit more and he offered to go sideways over it. Again, he blew my mind.

Cutest horse in the world :).

One day it was beautiful out so we went and played in the big 130' x 300' outdoor. I was going to play a littler liberty before getting on. I asked for a trot circle, not expecting much. If anything I expected him to run back to the gate. There, right in the middle of that giant arena he trotted the tightest, most perfect liberty circles around me. Never has he ever trotted small liberty circles around me. It wasn't too long ago that he wouldn't circle me, let alone trot a small circle. Where did this horse come from?!

After playing at liberty, I took off running for the fence. Not only did he canter behind me (whoa, lots of effort from an LBI!), while I was getting on the fence he positioned himself perfectly for me to get on. That definitely gave me goosebumps.

My little liberty star.

I am not sure what those few months off did for us, but it was definitely something great. I do miss the time I used to get to spend with him and I miss actively pursing never ending self improvement, but right now I am just ending the moment. In this crazy world, I guess you never know when the next one might be...