I rode!

I actually rode!  I feel bad about having poor Princess so naked, so tacking up is an adventure.  Pull up his blanket to uncover his hindquarters, throw a cooler over.  Pull the blanket off, throw the saddle on, cover him up with the cooler, and get the saddle placed and girthed while keeping him as covered as possible.

We walked for a while with the cooler on so he wouldn't get cold and took it off just before trotting.  At one point he almost had a freak out for some unknown reason.  He started getting goofy and flipping his head.  Thankfully it only lasted a few seconds and then he was fine.

We did a lot of trotting and leg yielding and shoulder-inning.  Even with a sitting trot!  The last time I tried a sitting trot it was yucky and he didn't appreciate it.  This time he was completely fine.  Whenever the last time I rode was, there was someone in the ring on foot, and I asked her to basically be my mirror so I could find out if what was supposed to be a shoulder-in was actually a shoulder in.  It was.  *happy dance*  The mirrors aren't placed ideally for basic lateral work--one is on the short side but placed maybe 8 feet off the rail so you can only see yourself in it if you go up the quarterline; the other is on the long side in the middle.  But last night I walked him down the quarterline and asked for shoulder-in to try to see in the mirror.  And yay, he was doing it!  It wasn't very steady and wavered between shoulder-fore and shoulder-in, but it was more or less what I wanted.  AND it was off the rail, which makes it harder.  AND it was in his harder direction (the mirror is placed so you have to be going to the right to see in it). 

I even got really ambitious and attempted haunches-in and haunches-out.  I know the correct terms are renvers and travers, except:  A.  I don't know which is which; B.  I pronounce them "ren-vers" and "tra-vers", not even remotely correctly; and C. The end results were so far from what is correct that it's an insult to the correct terms.

We tried.  It wasn't very successful, but we tried.  We just need practice.  He needs to get more bendy (although he's VERY bendy when there's food involved), and I need to keep a correct position and stop contorting myself.  I think there were a few steps here and there that involved some bend and shifting his hindquarters.  We got an A for effort, a D- for execution.

The vet is coming in the morning!  River needs his teeth done, as does another boarder (the world's cutest OTTB!  He's like 15hh and is adorable!).  The Mare might need her teeth done..  It's been over a year, but I don't ride her, she's at a good weight, and she's a hoover (seriously.... all the other horses will have at least half of their dinner hay left and she's searching her stall for any scraps she missed.  I'm pretty sure we could give her an entire bale and she'd have it gone by morning.).  So we'll see about her.

Awww!  His clip doesn't look too bad..