April 27, 2011 - More pre-mounting exercises

I gave Rory a good grooming this morning and pulled a bit more of his mane.  It's still too long for braiding.  I had planned to pull a bit once a month, but this month got away from me so it's been about six weeks.

I tacked him up and took him out to the arena.  We started with longeing.  Rory was really good for his longeing exercises today.  After longeing I started the stirrup weighting exercise on his right side.  Rory was completely unconcerned by me pulling on the saddle and jumping up and down.  Using my knee in the stirrup to jump up was met with the same indifference so I jumped up and hooked my left elbow over the saddle and hung there for a couple of seconds before dropping down again.  Rory wasn't bothered by those antics either so I went round and hung off his left side.  I went back and forth a couple of times before running out of carrots.