Playtime...And Work Time

The ponies were in a playful mood today, with Charlie and Lu racing around just for the fun of it.  It's so nice to see them just galloping around and being horses.  It also causes gasps of joy from Jo and myself, as Charlie is so balanced and surprisingly light on his feet. His changes of direction are a so swift, his trot so floating and he has a very collected up hill canter.  I hear the show ring calling!!

We brought all 3 biggies down to the 3-Acre where my round pen is.  I gave Charlie a swift lunging session and spent a whole packet of polos teaching him to say Please.  Once the other two were tacked up, I shushed him out to go graze the rest of the field. Jo went off on Lu and I started to give Chanice Who Helps On Saturdays an intense lunge lesson....with knotted reins and no stirrups (Don't tell her parents).  We had been working for less than 5 minutes, when Charlie appeared under the gate-rope and joined us. While this is not at all BHS, he was happy to quietly graze and didn't get in the way (much).  Chanice did really well, getting a really good sitting trot while holding the pommel.  I gave her lots of weird exercises to do, to not only to loosen her up, but to help her balance and confidence.

Jo came back and asked if i wanted to ride Lu.  Hell yeah.  She is amazing. Chanice and I played 'Follow my Leader', with me alarming Lu by waving my arms and legs around.  I then went into school mode and asked Lu for rein-back and what I call 'sideways stuff'. Lateral work always sounds a bit pretentious. Its Sideways Stuff until you got it. Lu was a little huffy...resisting the pressure of my legs, but kinda got 'Turn on the Belly', sideways along the fence line and a couple of steps of rein-back.  I would like to do more, as I have a fascination with bringing ponies on.