It's nice and hot today, so it seemed like a good time to push Dublin a little on his passenger lesson and get him trotting. I don't know why I think it needs to be hot, the horse hasn't made a wrong or impulsive move yet, so I don't think he needs warm weather to calm him down. Anyway, I let him meander around a bit with me aboard until he was bored and started rearranging the various toys we have in the arena (cones, jump standards, etc). Laura showed up about then and we decided to get him trotting. He was not as anxious to do that as we were, so we had Laura lead the way and got him to follow. Still took a big effort, lots and lots of clucking and leg pressure (no kicking, just squeezing!) and about the time Laura was ready to drop from heat exhaustion, he took a few trotting steps. After that it got easier and I actually could see what his trot was like. From the ground, the horse looks like he's floating when he trots, so it was oh so gratifying to find that it feels the same way from the saddle. Wow! I posted it, and it was just like dancing. Which is amazing since I can't really dance...but I guess this is what it's supposed to be like.
I could see Laura was on the verge of drooling, and since the horse is remarkably untraumatized by the whole riding thing, she was next on the horse. She also got him to trot and is in agreement. Laura has been riding her big buckskin mare, Lady, for around 10 years now, and she thinks the 5-year-old OTTB feels less likely to break into bucking at any moment than Lady does. I kind of feel the same way about Cowboy.
Dublin has had his fill of boring passenger lessons, so next ride it's time to give him some direction and start him on some riding patterns to give the ride purpose.
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