Yet another amazing day.....

Prince and I had yet another amazing ride. We went trail riding again. We rode down our logging road, out both gates, then onto water street. It is all gravel and not used a lot. My mom took Knightly and they played on the ground while Prince and I rode. Prince was AMAZING!!!!! The bugs were bad but it was still a blast!! We did lots of trotting too. At one point we must have trotted 500ft or more!!!!! I felt totally confident and Prince loved it!! It was so cute seeing him looking at everything and enjoying it.

We wanted to ride farther down the road but the bugs were getting so bad. So we turned around and went back. Just for fun we decided to go through town. Somebody was like "Horses!" it was funny!!! Both Prince and Knightly did really well even cars went by. When we were still on our logging road Prince and I trotted through the long grass. It was REALLY tall!! It was fun!!! At first Prince was walking really fast but then he slowed down and we went at a nice slow pace. After a bit I was like "I want to go faster! Walking is sooooooo slow" Prince was willing to trot so we did!!

Before we left we played in the riding ring. I think I figured out what shimming pattern Prince needs. Hooray!! That is done for another 8-12 weeks!!! I rode for a little bit in the riding ring. Our riding has taken HUGE leaps is the past couple weeks. It is amazing!!! I asked Prince to trot faster then he normally does. I want to really get good at riding what ever trot he gives me before I ask for a canter. I can feel it getting closer!!!!!!!!

It was SO cool because after Prince and I had trotted really fast a couple times all Prince wanted to do was trot fast. So while we were trotting I just lifted on rein a little and he gave me a NICE slow trot. It was wonderful!!!

We also worked on Sideways and backing up with lightness plus we are playing around with trotting departures. I really want to get our riding light. Our sideways it getting a lot better. I am asking Prince to go sideways farther. It is slow but right now I am not worried about that. Slow and right beats fast and wrong.

Then I asked Prince to back up softer and faster. Prince was soft but wasn't really going faster so I started moving my feet he got a little bit faster so I stopped. Now the BFO that I had was this.... I was sitting there thinking "Why isn't he getting it that I want him to go faster?" Then I thought "Well maybe it is because I am not moving my feet fast enough" So I tried it. I asked him to back up then started wiggling my feet faster and guess what!?! Prince went faster!!! I was like DUH!!!!!! I wasn't moving my feet faster because I wanted to give Prince the chance to move but then I realized that he didn't kn ow what to do!! So when I started moving my feet faster it made sense to him. *sigh* I love learning!!!!!

We did some figure 8's. We kept doing the pattern till Prince got softer. After about 5 figure 8's I relaxed and Prince stopped right away!! Then licked and chewed!! I think next time I should use my carrot stick to guide him.

While we were riding through the bush on the logging road I was looking for things to go over or to do a squeeze game with. We trotted over a fallen down tree that was maybe 9 inches high. The only time Prince got a little unsure was when we had to do in between two houses. It was the biggest squeeze we have ever done and he didn't really want to go first. There was also a car on one side and a whole pile of junk or something on the other side. So mom and Knightly went first then he was okay.

I am so proud of Prince. I can't wait to do it again!!! I really think that the trail ride on Friday shot my confidence sky high. I got to see how well Prince did and that we are both ready to move on and that it doesn't hurt to try :)

~K