Working on Things is Getting Better

Yesterday I had to work late so I used the morning hours and tacked up early. Spyder was confused as to why he was getting ridden in the morning, but he seemed to be more perky than usual which was a good thing. The flies are crazy so we used a lot of spray after he got groomed and went out to the big ring. I didn't do the usual warm up because of our boredom issue lately. I went all around the perimeter of the ring because Spyder was full of pep for some reason, and I wanted to mix it up. He kept looking at the chair at the end of the dressage ring which he hasn't flinched at for quite some time so I made sure he went by it without a problem.

I worked on trotting and pushing him into the bridal while moving off of leg which went REALLY well. What's up with him listening after not wanting to move last week? We moved on to the canter and worked on getting on the bit for that, too. Not only are we cantering decently, but we have a big of control. Again, this is primarily on a circle for a few times around, but I'm sure we can push for longer periods of time. We moved on to jumps at the trot - a cross rail, ground poles spaced for trotting, and the wishing well. He flew over the wishing well like it was 4' so we had to do it a few times before he calmed down. He will get the height the first time and is much lazier the second time around. Each time after that, even less of an effort.

Again, we worked on stopping and listening, and I must say, he is better at doing things "on demand" (which I tie back to our Danny lessons of making him listen and not letting him get away with things). We went back to barn after just 30 minutes to leave it on a good note, but he was all hyped up because they were spreading manure in his old field with the tractor. He LOVES tractors. Apparently, he's "played" with them while mowing the lawn on the other side of his field. He kept wanting to trot and then would break in to the pace which was annoying. I had to bring him back to trot or push him to canter in which he would fall back to a pace because he was too excited. Oh well. We came back to the canter circles to get things under control, and we ended it there.