Workout Week

I'm so sorry I haven't been posting frequently! I've been so busy.

Amidst everything else in my life going on, the one thing that really stands out is Zan's progress.

In the past week, Zan has showed so much progress.

I rode Zan over jumps on Tuesday. He didn't refuse a single one of them. He sort of paused before he went over them. We got through a course, though! I got to take Pete over a course. It was messy, yes, but Pete is doing so well! When I cantered Zan over jumps, he went right over them without a problem! Now, if we can consistently get him to go over the jumps at both a trot and a canter, then that would be even better!

I started Zan around barrels, also. He seems to love doing tight turns and speeding around the barrels. I tried to get him to do a circle - just a regular, big, plain circle - around one of the barrels, and he slid over and made the sharpest turn I've seen from him. It was brilliant! I love that boy. ;)

On Wednesday, we had a good ride. I rode with Taylor (on Pete) and we had lots and lots of fun. I got Zan to clean up  his canter. He's really started slowing down and lengthening his strides, and he doesn't throw his head up or duck it down when we make the transition. It's just work, work, work on the canter over and over and over as much as possible on our canter. He's started to pick up the correct lead going his bad way, too, and we're working on 'making it pretty,' as Erica says.

When we went to get our horses on Wednesday, Rainmaker and JW escaped! They got into the dry lot where Mal and Taco were, and it scared the crap out of me! Fortunately, that didn't happen on Friday. We got the horses where they belong and everything was fine.

Wednesday night, Taylor slept over. Thursday night, too. On Friday morning, at 10 am, Mom took us out to the barn. Madison and  Erica met Taylor and I there; by the time I got Zan brushed and got on, everyone was pumped for a fun day.

I practiced with Zan around barrels, and he was so good; he slowed down on command, lengthened his strides, held his head in the right place, and listened to my seat when we cantered. Our trot is coming together, but it's speedy once again. Grr. Oh well.

Pete was a butthead. Taylor couldn't get him to canter, and didn't want to use the crop. I understand her fears of that; at her old barn, her instructor would beat the horses with crops, and obviously Taylor didn't want anything like that to happen to Pete. So I cantered Pete and, despite everything, used the crop to make him canter. I cantered him once at the end of the ride, as well. After I cantered Pete at the end, I cantered Sonny. Son just about slipped and fell when we tried to go through a patch of mud; we scared the living heck out of Madre Frazee. Sorry Madre! ;) Anyways,...

After our ride, we practiced showmanship. Zan did so well. He stood still, let me move his feet, and even stretched once for me. When we practiced our pattern, Madison didn't want to do it, and Taylor wanted to watch me do it first. So I ended up doing the pattern maybe three times - don't ask - and Zan did well. There was this one annoying little bug, though, that bit me three or four times and bit Zan over and over and over and over. It was ridiculous. =P

While waiting for Taylor's Aunt Kim to pick us up, Taylor and I rode Zan and Pete bareback. Taylor said I must have a death wish. Haha. Maybe. But I only walk/trotted Zan bareback, so it wasn't so bad. He's a good boy, and I can't imagine him acting any other way.

I love my boy!