End of Exams Ride :)

Exams are FINALLLLLLLYYY over with!!! I feel like my brain is sufficiently fried and thoroughly raped. Poor Yankee didnt get much attention over the past 2 weeks due to my sickness and exam studying...but thankfully I have about a week and a half till I got home to Ohio for a holidays for a week, then after I come back I plan on working him everyday if I get the chance.

Today I warmed him up again inside free lunging with sidereins and thought I would post some pictures to show how very good this is working out for him. I used his jumping tack today since after the warm up we went for a good canter out in the field and walk around the property.

Yes this is him doing his usual freak out for a moment....


Then he settles right down into this AMAZING trot. Look how he is really pushing from behind, his front feet are off the ground before his back feet which show great use of the hindquarters. I love how you can see the muscling on his boot-tay :) He is accepting the bit and listening to me, and his poll is the highest point. He looks great :)


Pretty good active canter too, still reaching forward nicely and active behind as well as really relaxed in the neck....


This picture is fantastic and you can see the awesome spring he has in his step, I mean this is exceptional for yankee. He is very active and working over his back pretty good, maybe a little hollow but still nice. You can even see his stomach muscle. Relaxed in his poll and neck...just an overall good picture of a relaxed pony!


this looks really nice too for Yanks. His canter is naturally uphill but working free in the arena without a rider seems to help him gain more balance and use that muscley butt of his. I can say the same for this picture as the rest of them...so proud!

So as you can see, this really seems to be benificial to him and I will most definetly continue to use this before every ride....now only if showsgrounds had an area where I could do this before every test....ugh.

After warm up we did a few laps around the field at a good lung blowing canter in the snow! we both had fun and he was listening like a good boy. His new bridle and bit are working like I hoped!

Speaking of the new bridle here is a pretty good picture of it. This is a $200 jumping bridle i got off ebay for $40! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and so does Yankee. He has a weird shaped head where his ear base is wider than the rest of his head so I looked for a while for one that would fit and this bridle is beautiful and functional! YEAH ebay!