First Incounter With The Red Ball

I rode Java again on Thursday and it was the first day that we rode with the ball in the ring. So it could have been very exciting, but it was not. She could not have been less fazed by it. She didn't care when we walked up to it, she'd sniff it but that's it. She didn't even look when it was next to a jump we went over. Percy would knock it around with his nose and Zander was not even remotely pleased to see it. It's probably going to be a bit of a challenge to get her to play with the ball when she's so uninterested in it.

She was much peppier for me that she usually is during the flat part of the lesson. When we did the warm up exercise of  trotting an X rail, land cantering, trot before the cavaletties, she would not trot. We did it about five times in totally and she could canter the whole thing every time! It was incredibly frustrating. When it came time to do the course (yes! A whole course in a winter lesson! Most rare!) she did spectacular! We got all our distances, didn't get popped forward or left behind and didn't catcher in the mouth! It was a lot of fun, and she did really well! I also can still count strides accurately up to a jump, so I'm pleased not to have lost that ability!