Windy Changes

Horses and wind don't match. I'm up at Katy's today having a lesson (the first in a long while), and the wind is blowing 30 mph and the horses next door are frolicking, and to add to the wildness, the TV series Wildfire is in full production right on the other side of the barn, so there are booms going up and four-wheelers flying by and cameramen shouting. Yikes. I would have "called in sick" but we've got the first show of the season coming up and I really need Katy to yell at me about missing my letters and so forth.

So all is well and we're going to work on single flying changes. I'm leg yielding at the canter from left to right (the bad side) and I can feel that the big bad B (the fat one in the snow in the photo pages) is anticipating... he's gonna...he's gonna...he's gonna BUCK CHANGE BUCK CHANGE BACK. dang.

Control Alt Repeat.

A gazillion times we did this exercise (or it seemed like it--we were both tired so it was probably only four times), and then the last time he waited for me to tell him what I wanted, and even if he did change, mini-buck, and change back, he still waited. Katy said he was letting me teach him what I wanted, rather than taking control. I liked that a lot and thought about it all the way home... it makes a heck of a lot of sense in the horse training biz.