This weekend Jimmy continued his happiness and greatness. Saturday I hacked him and he was wonderful as can be. I was alone in the arena and it made all the difference in the world. Having the ring to myself was so relaxing and it made the whole space seem much larger than it really is. I love that arena.
We continued working on lateral aids. Jimmy is becoming much more responsive because now from spending so much time NOT riding him, I understand him even better. I didn't think I could understand him better than I did before the surgery, but time definitely told me differently. It is so much clearer to me now how he learns and interprets things, so I can ask him in just the right way to shift his body weight to the right or left and cross over in a shoulder in or haunches in and I don't get the sassy ears back & tail swish that I used to get. I also have been much more consistent in rewarding the slightest try. If he even takes one good step I will reward him and throughout the ride I will ask more and more out of him. We've graduated from strictly walking lateral work to now the tiniest ounce of trot lateral work. He's not as enthusiastic to move laterally at the trot, but he was exactly this way when I introduced it to him at the walk, so I know it's only a matter of time before he's completing beautiful shoulder-in and haunches-in down the whole long side of the arena. To date, he can go about 3/4 the long side at a walk in a shoulder-in and just 1/4 at the trot. It takes him 3/4 of the way down at the trot to understand and process what I'm asking, then the last 1/4 her "gets" it and clicks into gear, then the short side I let him extend and stretch down before I gather him up again and ask the next time around. He seems to really like this method, so I will continue with baby steps. We've got nothing but time.
Lucy had her lesson on him yesterday. Since he has come so far in the 5 days at the new farm I didn't need to borrow a lesson horse, I just used Jimmy. He was perfect, of course. He takes great care of her while still being enough of a pig that she needs to ride. His latest trick is to "park" with her. She kicks and squeezes and clucks and digs her heels into his sides and he just stands there, annoyed. I like when lesson horses pull tricks on the novice students, I think it helps them learn to keep riding every step...so long as he never considers pulling this stunt with Mama on his back ;-) I truly think he knows better than that anyway!!
Tim should be out tonight to trim JC and put new shoes on so I'll have to run out and drop off a check, and I might just as well ride while I'm there. I've got a healthy horse, so why the heck not ;-)
Tomorrow evening a few of my friends from college will be coming out to ride. They used to come out and play around and ride Jimmy when he was very young (part of me teaching him to be 'kid proof'). None of these friends have ever had riding lessons or know much at all about horses, so it's great for him to be around people who don't know what they're doing. It helps him respect space and be tolerant of nonsense. I've always kind of fussed around with him and stood up on his back, put tarps on the ground for him to walk over, slid off of his butt...but I think having a truly novice adult on and around him really does wonders for him. It's so important to me that he is 100% safe for everyone at all times.
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