This was the day:
Sunny and in the low 70s. Beautiful.
It started with me attempting to familiarization myself and Steen with a rope. He was fine with it coiled. I could bang it all around his saddle and body. When I started swinging it around he wasn’t as cool with it, though I couldn’t tell if it was because he was scared of the rope or just embarrassed to be seen with me.
Once I got on, things were just amazing. Steen was soft to the hackamore, willing to collect and stay soft at all gaits. At the trot I could pick up light pressure on the reins and send him to the side, and he’d leg-yield as smooth as floating.
We could stand to invest a little more energy in most of our movements, including the trot. Backing, we’re getting more consistency through more steps. I did the 10 forward, 10 back exercise and by the end he was holding his collected frame perfectly.
Then there was an impromptu lead change. I was just going to come down from the lope, but when I asked him to slow down he trotted one stride and I felt that if I asked him for the lope again he would move right out again on the other lead. I was right.
We also loped with Brain and Laredo a little. Steen gave me a nice, slow collected canter so his little brother could keep up. What a guy.
Ride Time: 1:10
Horseback hours YTD: 109:20