Evening Rides

There was only a little daylight after work and the river was too high to cross, again. I rode Cruiser up and down the hill three times. He was quite energetic, and even did some gaiting up the hill. (Cruiser has standard gaits, but he also does a stepping pace when he is excited. He can get quite fast. He must have gotten it from his Morgan side, as there are gaited Morgans.) When we got back to the barn, it started to rain, lightly. Perfect timing. It rained the rest of the night.


I worked Cole in the arena. Since I took him on the 2.5 hour trail ride with a lot of trotting just the day before, I planned a quiet ride. I’m glad to say he had just as much energy as a typical day. Still, I didn’t push him too hard. We did some trotting, got our 10 clickable walk/trot transitions, worked on our corners and straight sides at a walk, threw in some trotting and then started something new—walk/whoa transitions using the reins. I might have taught him that last year, but he stops quite well with a verbal command—I have gotten lazy. I realized we needed to get a solid stop with the reins. It didn’t take long—maybe 5 tries and he understood it. I only clicked him for perfect halts. I will review this lesson a lot, since it is a good one for warm ups and walk breaks.

We then had to show off to everyone how he picks up my whip if I drop it. he loves picking things up, so it is a good way to reward him for being such a good boy.