June 2, 2011 - To boldly go...

We had a couple of very hot days this week and then a really windy system blew in to clear out the humidity.  Today wasn't quite as windy as yesterday, but it was still blowing very strongly today.  I wasn't sure if I'd get any decent work out of Rory, much less if I'd be able to ride, but I decided to take it one step at a time.

Looking out the door

I groomed, tacked up and went out to the arena to longe.  The big back door was open again, adding yet another distraction.  The wind was strong, but fairly steady and the arena wasn't too noisy.  Rory was a bit distracted at first, and a couple of times was so intent on looking out the big door that his feet almost followed his nose out the door.  He was listening to me well, and responded to my cues to go forward and come back in the trot.  I noticed today that Rory tracks up without any effort on his part, and when I ask him to go forward his hind foot easily lands more than two hoof lengths in front of the front hoof's print.  After ten minutes I decided that Rory was attentive enough for me to try riding.  I skipped the canter today since he had enough trouble going past the doors at trot.

A relaxed trot

I mounted from the right today and Rory was a little less steady.  He seemed eager to get on with the ridden work.  I'm glad he's comfortable enough with the mounting to be a little bored, but I took the extra time to dismount and remount to reinforce the concept that he must stand still for mounting.  Once we got going Rory was good.  Again he was a little distracted by what he could see through the big doors, but we managed to trot and turn reasonably well.  Rory was quite calm and I dared to take him outside.

And out we go into the wide world

We went out the big back door then stopped and Rory had a look around.  I didn't rush him and he wasn't nervous, just wanted to look at everything.  When he was ready we walked along to the corner and stopped for a look at the new sights that had been hidden by the arena.  The horses in the ring looked at him and I waited until they'd come as close as they wanted to and lost interest in Rory.  I didn't want to risk them watching him walk halfway along the arena and then running over to see him - I thought that might be a bit much to ask Rory to accept on his first day outside.  We walked down the side of the arena, halted again, then went into the arena again through the other big door.  Rory wanted to trot as if he intended to go straight through and out the back door again, but I just had him do a half circle and come back out again.  We walked back to the barn and Rory was very relaxed and comfortable.  He did tend to drift towards my friend (who took photos and kept an eye on us today) when she was ahead of him, but responded easily to my corrections.  I was really proud of him and how good he was on his first walk outside.

Looking around with interest

Then off we go...

... back to the barn.