Lease Ride Dec. 2nd 2025 - Training Journal Entry #5

 Well... The arena was very muddy yesterday so I wasn't sure what all we would/wouldn't be able to do, but we were actually able to walk, trot, canter, and do the pole exercise.

I ended up using my red saddle pad so we had a bit of Christmas vibes (I had originally planed to use the saddle pad on Monday but it wasn't ready) and he looked cute in the red. I have a bunch of really cute Christmas sets planned out for the month so I'm really excited about that!

It was quite cold but my jacket
kind of matched!

He was very patient for me while I mounted and when I got on he only moved a step or two and then stopped on his own before I had to ask him too. (progress!!)

We warmed up trotting after we walked a few laps both ways and we did some trot circles and changed direction across the long diagonal and short diagonal, and we trotted over some of the poles set up for the exercise. I also tried to work on my sitting trot a bit and I was able to hold it for a whole long side each way. (improvement!!)

After we had warmed up at the trot and had a bit of a walk break we cantered both ways. It took about 3 try's to get his right lead and he picked his left lead up perfectly. We did a canter circle at both the top and bottom of the ring (although the circle by the gate was a bit of an awkward shape navigating around all the poles and jump stands)

Left lead canter circle

After we had finished warming up we started the pole course from Monday and I could instantly feel he was more settled coming into the first set of trot poles, and I could also feel how well he switched his bend over the second trot pole. 

Once we had trotted the entire pattern really well I incorporated the canter sections and he picked up the wrong lead the first time but the second time he did it all really nicely. I added a halt to the end of the pattern instead of just walking and the first time the fence helped up stop but the second time he was thinking about the halt earlier and we halted just a few strides after the last set of poles so I let him be done on that. 

He enjoyed his dinner and soaked alfalfa pellets after we finished riding, and he also enjoyed a treat!