Saturday

Sorry for being such a terrible blogger, but uni's been really busy.
I had a lesson with Kokanne on Saturday and it wasn't terrible, but that's really only because we are taking it easy on them as things start to unthaw a bit.
We practiced circling and only had one tiny little cross pole. The point of the circling (besides something Shelley told us to work on) is to help the horses bend better around a course and for the riders to constantly be looking at where we are going next as well as maintain constant pressure on the inside rain.
Our biggest problem was me looking down and right in front of us, rather than up and around the whole circle. It sounds like this is similar to what we'll be doing all week, so I'll get lots of practice and not doing those things.
He was super good about picking up the correct canter lead going to the left because usually he hates and you have to fight with him for it. Sadly it's very difficult to tell with him, whether or not you have the correct lead because of the scar tissue in his hip and him being rather unbalanced/uncoordinated. That was something K mentioned when he got a bit rushy at the canter, is that I have to make sure to bring him back whenever he does that otherwise he'll stay unbalanced and uncoordinated forever. He's been getting better at jumping though. It's really not like the first time we jumped together and he had this horrible low head (only horrible because I was used to Rocky's very round jump and he keeps his head up). He's really improved lately and a couple people were quite surprised (yay ego boost b/c I'm the only one who rides him).
I wish I could do more lease rides though, if I could ride three times a week, he could be even better. But I suppose that's something his next rider can work on since I should (if all goes well) have Rocky back by spring.
Should get a picture of Kokanne for the blog, because he really is a super cute even if he's a gimp with weird gaits. He's coming around.

Spell-check is so ridiculous, it always tells me that Kokanne should be spelled "Cocaine", while they both might be addictive substance, Kokanne is a far better name.