Cob Jockey

So much has happened since the last time I wrote, I don't even know where to start.  On Friday, I rode Shae outside and it was night and day different from riding in the indoor.  The new sand footing in the indoor is deep and shifty, plus that arena is very small.  Our outdoor is enormous with great footing, and he moved much easier and more happily in the outdoor.  He was forward and maintained his gaits easily until I asked him to come down.  Best of all, he picked up both leads at the canter when I asked, and I didn't have to do the posting/bumping thing Sara taught us to do.  He's so solid on voice commands, he'll pick up the canter from that alone, so I'm immediately using more sophisticated cues as if he were a finished horse.  He picked up the canter faster than some of our school horses, if you can believe it!

The other big news is that Shae's breeder wants me to ride and start some of her ponies this summer - eep!  I took this class as a personal challenge and as a "fun" thing to do because I'm clearly not the person you want training your horses, and yet Dr. Marks told her I was good enough to do it, apparently.  I'm hopefully going to see her facility this weekend and I'm really excited to meet her and her ponies.