1, 2, 3

First:

I took Robert out on a solo trail ride, making sure to tell BM where we were headed and how long it was going to take us in case shit hit the fan. But it didn't and Robert behaved himself much better than he did the last time we were out. We got to one of the galloping paths and I felt him start to tense up and his ears went flying forward instead of flopped sideways in neutral Bobby stance. I made him leg yield each way a bunch of times, we did several full turns on the forehand, and did several walk-halt transitions. By the time we got to the end of the path, one ear was cocked back to me and the other was flopped sideways. We ran into half a dozen deer that went frolicing unconcerned in front of us for awhile. Bobby was watching them, but he was still relaxed and wasn't worried about them. We walked the whole time for forty five minutes.

Second:

I began Project Scary Monster Jumps by lungeing him over the tire jump and the gate jump Hubby and I built last year. He went right over the tires at the trot and canter, but threw a serious shit fit about going over the gate, which he has jumped at 2'6 many times before.

ok, perhaps not well, but he has jumped it.

So we had a serious go-round until he went over and over and over and over it. He's going to get Tuesday off from anything because of the chiro, but he'll get the rest of the week off from riding to work on the ground. Go when I say go, and when I say trot I do not mean "canter around like a fucking lunatic until you've burned dime-sized holes into my fingers." He lunges like a pro in the indoor, but anywhere else and he turns into a crazy town fuck head.

I got on him, jumped him over the tires without issue, over the gate without issue, and finished by going over the vertical with the barrel underneath it without issue. I'm sure he was tired by that point, but I was pleased with it anyway and he got lots of pats.

Third:

Bath time! I was scratching his neck and big gross clumps of winter hair were coming off so I scrubbed him good. I turned him back out so I'm sure tomorrow he'll be dirty again, but at least I got some more hair off. It's supposed to be in the high sixties to mid seventies for the next week again so there will be plenty more baths to come.