So, how has old Oats been this weekend?
Pretty good actually. We lessoned on Saturday and worked over a course of cross-rails in a hunter-type pattern. Oats was pretty reasonable, a small buck in protest to me spanking him on a canter circle- asking for ”more” canter from him can be a risky proposition sometimes, and he did take offense!
Sunday I felt super anxious when I was riding. The weather was very poor, the horses were quite ‘up’ in the indoor and Oats had a very fun time trying to pull me down to the indoor, shaking his head and ‘playing’ the whole way down.
I was wondering if i should have taken a page from some of the other riders/trainers and longed him a bit first, but I don’t normally need to do this….
So I hopped up, and felt anxious the whole walk. We moved to trot, did some serpentines and I let the nervousness move out. Felt pretty good after that!
We hopped over some hay bales going to left, then on the right, I didn’t commit, I leaned forward and Oats gradually slowed to a stop. RIGHT in front of the hay bales. And grabbed a bite.
Bad! Hahah! So I looped him around and we trotted over it. No problem.
He was well behaved and it left me wondering why I was so concerned. Hahah…Oh well. The weather has me feeling pretty miserable at times, and I had a lousy run that morning on a flooded, snowy and mucky trail.
Here’s to a fun week with Oats!
This video is from a few years ago, our first winter at High Oaks.
The adventures of Mr. Oats 