Summer Lovin'

They finished the fences on the pastures yesterday and started mowing the grass field.  Today almost all the ponies went out in the pastures, and most of them are staying out for the summer.  Buddy will start staying out tomorrow but Phoenix still has to get acclimated.  I'm hoping to get Phoenix out full time by this weekend.

Phoenix says "Hi"

I rode Buddy today and he felt good. I'm glad his soreness was just ouch feet and the shoes fixed it.  There were a few fences set up, and since he felt good I decided to jump a bit.  I don't know if it was the grass or the shoes or whatever, but he nailed it.  Almost every fence I was able to sit back and wait for the distance.  It felt awesome!  We didn't do a whole lot since he was so good.

To cool out I took him for a "walk" in the field.  As soon as we headed out, he started trotting and prancing.  He calmed down once we were out in the field.  We did a full circuit then walked down the lane between the paddocks.  Last year this is where we did our canter sets, since it's on a slight incline.  As soon as we got to the gates at the end to turn around, Bud started jumping around again.  Somebody remembers galloping up the hill!  I made him stand and wait (and to take a pic) then we trotted up the hill.  He had an amazing extended trot up the hill; it felt just like the one we had in our dressage lesson. 

A couple weeks of trot sets up the hill then it's canter set time!