It was all going great, until the nosedive!!

Today was designed to be a light workout - as I had a new horse arrive overnight and I was tending to him as well (see http://thehueydiaries.blogspot.com/).

I just wanted to have a nice, easy lunge session with the roller and sidereins. And it definitely was nice and easy - to begin with.

I asked him to walk a few circles (and he moved away very nicely) and when he was calm and responsive I asked him to move into trot. His trot is looking better and better each day! It's becoming very soft and he's looking more and more balanced with each lesson. He really does surprise me how quickly he learns things and genuinely wants to try. I asked him for canter and move into it immediately today, no rushing, just a nice smooth transition (maybe it had something to do with the lunge whip in my hand that meant 'no fooling about today' hehe) ...

So we did that briefly to each side, and to break up the lesson, I had set up 3 trot poles in which I would move him over, then move him away from during the lesson. I figured he'd appreciate something to think about rather than just circles. He was lifting himself very nicely, and lowering his head and take a look at what he was doing ... Then at some point, I guess he figured "well these are boring and too easy now" and stopped thinking about what he was doing with his feet. Result..............

.....a nosedive into the ground!! He tripped over the final trot pole and crashed ver ungracefully into the sand.... After checking him over and finding nothing wrong, I led him over the poles a couple of times ... at first he was like "Screw you mum, they just tried to kill me, I'm not going over them again"... But after a couple of times he was relaxed - so I lunged him at the trot to either side over them again briefly... and called it a day ...

Until that point, I was marvelling at how much he's improved and how responsive he is... Ah well, we all make our mistakes.. I fall flat on my ass all that time, haha... I'm going to ride him tommorow - so we'll see how that goes :o)