Settling In

I'm happy to report that Peebs has seemed to have settled in very easily.  He's quiet in his stall, takes everything in stride (except the neighbor's new boarder's weanling), and I'm still in love.  We had a spa day last weekend and clipped up his legs, face, and bridle path, and washed his legs, tail, and butt (he gets runny manure when switching hay). So far I've learned that he's not a fan of having his ears clipped, likes to walk way as you're mounting, and is completely and utterly distracted by said weanling.  At least with the weanling all he wants to do is stare at it longingly and doesn't loose his shit when it runs around like a certain black TB mare would have.

But mom, it's a BABY!!!

We had our first lesson last weekend as well and as my trainer put it, "Honeymoon's over, time to get to work!"  I've been in a "It's so nice to have a sane trained horse, let's just bop around la, la, la, la, la!" mood. But Peebs needs some polish with his flat work.  He's lazy, and wants to revert to lesson pony mode, and I've learned I need to at least have a crop and sometimes I need to use it. We worked on getting him forward in my lesson, especially in the canter. We also need to work on upward canter transitions, especially to the right, as he likes to trot super fast into them.

I had the chrio look at him yesterday, and while his back and hips were tight his neck was a mess.  His musculature is completely upside down and the base of his neck was way out of whack. But the chiro thought that with consistent, correct riding he should be fine in no time.