Everything is awesome

I have been saying recently that if Odin had a theme song it would be the Lego movie's Everything is Awesome because he just likes things.

Another horse!  I love other horses!
Riding?  I love riding! It's my favorite!
COOOKIES??  I love those!
Curry comb, that is definitely my favorite!

Not that he doesn't occasionally get irritated by things.  We are still dealing with some sporadic, probably track related, saddling crankiness.  It isn't just the girth, it is actually more when you put the saddle on his back.  He was vetted and chiroed with absolutely zero back soreness and the saddle was verified to fit, so I am not too worried about anything physical.  I am guessing mental because if literally anything is distracting him (a person walking by, a lead rope in his mouth, horses being led nearby) he forgets to be cranky.

And then sometimes under saddle, he can object to leg when warming up.

Don't wanna

But otherwise, he just loves life and being around people and I am enjoying having a horse that is so damn pleasant.

And handsome

Even if he does occasionally forget humans aren't for chewing on.

We had a really good lesson Saturday morning.  We couldn't turn him out to run (our indoor had been flooded by a forgotten sprinkler and wasn't really usable) and decided to skip the longing and just ride.  I figured it is easy enough to get off and longe if necessary.

While so far it has been hard to identify much in the way of patterns as he is changing so quickly, I have noticed that it takes him about 10-15 minutes of under saddle work if he hasn't been longed before he really settles in.

That was definitely the case Saturday, we even had a mini yahoo moment where we were circling and he locked onto a cross rail and wanted to "bolt" at it.  So he squealed, took one sort of big step, bumped his butt maybe 6 inches off the ground, and then sighed and continued turning.

This is him being fresh

The head tilting is 90% gone but sometimes we still like to revisit it

Our trot work is still largely just the biggest circle we can do while keeping rhythm with lots of direction changes.  And then sometimes more big squares so we can practice going straight instead of turning.

One day I swear, I will keep my shoulders back.  But pretty pony.

And we throw in some other things from time to time with moving sideways off the leg, turns on the forehand, and poles.  This horse must have some Gumby DNA because so far bending around the leg and lateral work have been easier than expected. Going right is harder but as long as you control his outside shoulder, you can usually get it.

Video still but I can't find much to complain about here.

Not that everything is perfect all the time....

Oh yeah, get low, get behind the bit, and gape that mouth.  So lovely.  What effective riding!

But he is starting to figure some things out (props to my trainers for that!), I have been riding reasonably well, and I think we are starting to gel as a partnership.
.

To wrap up the lesson Saturday we even did some left lead canter work.  He picked it up right away, cantered a beautiful 20ish meter circle, and then quietly came back to walk.  That is happening more and more often and makes me start dreaming about jumping!!

I am still focused on not expecting anything on any given day and I know he is a young horse and tomorrow could be a ten steps backwards day (ahem one of those may have occurred already since Saturday), but I am also going to enjoy these moments for all they are worth.