It was about time for some good news!

Fawkes is under saddle again.  He has not a) thrown a shoe b) hurt himself or c) had a new allergic reaction to anything in like 72 hours.  It is amazing.  He still has edema on the right side of his neck but it isn't painful anymore.  So this weekend we gradually reintroduced him into the working world.  Friday night was just walking and a little trotting.  Saturday was more trotting.  And today we tried a little canter.

We have no new pictures so enjoy us sucking at dressage from May 2013.

The canter wasn't so great, at least the transitions were awful and there were several mini explosions.  I assume this comes from weeks of down time and am not sweating it.  We need work on our long and low.  I can get him to carry himself relatively relaxed but we haven't worked out really stretching down and out.

Canter work was like this

At the trot he feels pretty excellent.  Even the canter felt good for the half time around the ring between the 3-legged-camel transition and the I-want-to-run meltdown. My trainer and I will work out a plan for him going forward sometime this week and I will keep just working on relaxed, back stretchy trot in the meantime.

In more fun news, one of the other boarders was out of town and I was allowed to jump her most excellent horse this weekend.  He is a big Trakehner and a dead honest jumper.  He doesn't look at anything and is just what I need to get my own jumping mojo back.  It was a lot of fun to play around on him and remember that I really do know how to ride.  We were doing 2'6" oxers with lots of fill right off the bat and did courses and it was great.  We figured each other out quickly, which is not always the case for me, especially being so institutionalized to Fawkes and then getting on this big, floaty, warmblood.  But it was just lovely - he is easy to rate, easy to move up, and always hunting out the next fence.  Hope I can get some more rides on him while Fawkes goes to trainer school.

And then we can do this again soon

Fingers crossed for continued pony health!