Prince: Stadding barrels, maintaining gait, and so much more!

WOW! This afternoon Prince and I had an amazing play time. I was kind of tired so I didn't really feel like doing a lot with Prince but once we got started we couldn't stop! It was just to much fun! Prince came over to me a couple minutes after I got into the corral then I spent the next 10 minutes or so brushing Prince. He is shedding so much hair! I didn't get him 100% clean but then I really don't mind having a dirty horse ;) After that I haltered Prince and we went up to the riding ring. This time though I put the rope on Prince's neck and we walked up to the riding ring at Liberty basically. It was really neat! Prince stayed right with the and when we got about half way up the hill we ran the rest of the way up... well okay I ran, Prince trotted ;)

I wasn't planning on started of with circles right away but Prince kind of offered it so I took it and so after he trotted about half a lap or so I asked him to canter. We did a traveling circle type circle. Some where between a normal circle and a traveling one :) Prince did so well! He broke gait a couple times but it was just for a couple strides and then picked up the canter again. So all in all he cantered about 5-6 laps!!!! I was so proud of him! I could have quit right then and there and I would have been perfectly happy with our play session! I gave Prince a long rest and helped my mom with a couple things then we went and did some stick to me. Walk, trot, canter, back up, and sideways. Prince did really well at it all! After that I set up the barrels to play with our straddling. I really do think that Prince likes to jump! Even before I sent him he cantered off and jumped over the barrels. It took a couple tries but after about the forth try we got it! I am still experimenting with how light I can be but still get the message to Prince's feet. It is fun! Prince successfully straddled the barrels three times! Not bad for just learning it the other day! :) He is a fast learner!

After that I got ready to ride. I mounted by the neck. It was a little ruff because we haven't done it for a while but the end result was the same ;) We actually didn't do a whole lot while we were riding. We did some point to point (four feet on the pedestal and some other things), getting more speed on our 9 step back ups, refined indirect and direct reins, transitions and then the last thing we did was while Prince had all four feet on the pedestal I stood up on him and played the extreme friendly game while up there. It was so much fun! Prince did very well and stood nice and still ;)

I was really proud of how well Prince did. He was extra light in everything I asked him to do.

Here are a couple pics from today...

 

  

  

  

  

Naturally,

~Keri