And the riding regimen continues ...

(Tiki boy exactly one year ago)

Today was supposed to be day 1 of "ride the snot out of him", lol. Probably will be in my huntseat tack tomorrow, then dressage Wednesday, then HS Thurs and Fri. IEA show on Sunday. I ended up again hopping over the tiny jumps set up in the ring. My friend Keri (who'd never seen my horse) came over to give Joyce a lesson on her western pleasure boy. I took him up there while people were up there so I could get some Tiki input. The ring was a *little* better today because it did rain some last night; it was still hard, but not as bad. Joyce said 2 things that made me quite happy; 1. He was tracking straighter behind. 2. His hind end was reaching further underneath his body.

The bending thing wasn't my imagination; today, he absolutely felt straight and true as he bent around my leg and did NOT swing his butt around. Again, he was a lazy slug, haha. I'd worked him for about 20 mins, and Keri said she wanted to see him jump, so I cantered into the teeny baby crossrail. He jumped it like a goob, typical! Turned around and trotted in; good. Cantered into the tiny cabinet, saw the close one, and he SAT DOWN. Awesome! Let me explain: usually when I'm cantering in, and wait for the close one, I feel that he jumps over his front end. Today, he rocked back and jumped it neatly. Came into the vertical/coop line. Got a quiet spot to the vertical, then added a stride to the coop, and jumped both perfectly. Cantered the crossrail and cabinet a few more times, then jumped the line again but did the stride.

Both Joyce and her friend Debbie said that Tiki looked SO much more comfortable jumping. They said he didn't look like he stabbed the ground coming into the final stride. So far, these injections are seeming like a good investment. I know that I'm feeling definite improvement. Don't have a "new" horse YET, but so long as I do my part, I believe that in the long run I will:) Will be dodging the rain tomorrow and Wednesday.