Round and Round

I finally (finally!) got the round pen all weeded and trimmed back the blackberries. It took me a whole week but it's done!

And that meant that Colton got to go for a spin in the newly cleaned up round pen. I've been meaning to teach him to lunge for a while now but it's difficult without either a second person to help or a round pen and since I have no helpers, round pen it was. He was pretty good.

Of course it takes a while to build up stamina and learn how to respond to cues but for the first time not bad. At least he didn't try to body slam the panels to get out (unlike Jetta did). I guess he reserves that for the gate when he decides he wants in Grady's stall, lol. No wonder the gates are all bent...

Anyways, he walked and trotted nicely and we got a few strides of canter in each direction. He's quite hard to get going at the moment, but it would help if I had a lunge whip and not just a dressage whip. I really like his movement. I think he moves nicer than Katy does - at the trot when he's going at a good rate, he really tracks up, lifts his back and arches his neck. He looks like a dressage pony!

I meant to lunge him with the saddle on but of course I can't find the girth extender and the girth is just a titch too small. Now I have to figure out where it is - I hate it when you are 99% sure you know where something is, then discover that it isn't there. So Colton spent a couple days just carrying the saddle around without a girth and he didn't pay it hardly any mind. Even when we were walking up the hill and I wasn't paying attention and it fell off. Oops. But that is why I use a cheapy old saddle :)

Here are some pictures:

Slightly skeptical

Love it when he looks like this!

Extension!

Mane blowing in the breeze... Looks like he needs to be in a detangler commercial or something, lol.

Brief moment of canter

Are we done yet?

Looking much slimmer than when he arrived here, wouldn't you say?

Learning how to come in when asked

 Excuse the dirtiness, I was letting him sniff around the round pen and he decided to roll in the wet sand which stuck like glue! At least he's mostly black. And then the icing on the cake, I finally have a video that I was able to upload! I think youtube hates me. Just sayin'. Here's a very quick video, you might want to watch it without sound because of my clucking and such ;) And sorry about the wobbliness - it's hard to take a video and keep the horse going at the same time!