Last Ride on Comrade

Not forever, just until I come back from Florida.

Saturday we had lovely 50F temperatures. I started Comrade out in the arena and had to work hard to gain his attention since he was more interested in what Peggy was doing. Leg yield, straight, turn on the forehand, straight, circle, counter bend, and some bell curve. Finally I had a thinking pony.
From there I started using the little jumps to get him using his lazy pushing apparatus, aka his butt. Comrade proved again how little respect he has for PVC poles as he tripped over. I asked for more with a canter approach. He did much better picking his feet up. Next up, a connected line at the canter. He took off at the right spot for the X and the baby vertical, but missed over the last vertical. Ah, it is a start.
I ended by taking him out on trail and putting him over the solid log jumps and the barrel jump. Funny boy actually remembered how to pick his feet up, to the point of over jumping. With him I will take it.
Today was much colder and I only had a short time to ride. Thank you bareback pad. After a walk warm up, I surprised Comrade by taking him onto the side road. Nothing better than a straight road for working lateral.  An added bonus was that Comrade was not thrilled with the harder surface and slowed down. Since mister man likes to rush lateral movements to avoid doing them correctly, this road was perfect. He stayed straight as we leg yielded left, then right. Shoulder in then corner to head back up the road. Not surprising, Comrade did not want to work haunches out. Too much work. I was able to get only a few steps at a time. The good part, he was not looking at the woods or the other horses running around. A few trips up and down the road gave him a nice floppy neck and a big walk. I told him not to get too fat while I am gone. These Cobs live on air, and he has some fine, fat spring air coming.

While we are on the subject of spring, where the heck is it? As I reread our care instructions for the horses last year at the same time, I laughed to see that Dottie and Winston were already in muzzles. We still have heated buckets, blankets and are giving hay outside. And right at this moment we have snow on the ground. Seriously, this winter needs to end. The horses are shedding, the daffodils are blooming and it is still light outside at 7pm. That means spring. Mother nature needs to get with the program.

The grey boys wonder where the green grass is suppose to be

The dogs don't mind the snow. The deck is their favorite spot to play.