Putting on the dancin' shoes

Or at least in Gus's case, shoes.

Yesterday was Wednesday, which means ... (drum roll please) LESSON time. You just knew that was coming, right? Yesterday's lesson wasn't amazing by any means but I felt we had some very nice moments.

It all started with  lunge work, as usual. B noted that Gus seemed off on the left hind, but I didn't see anything too unusual. He may have had a few odd steps landing from time to time, but nothing dramatic. Once he was sufficiently warmed up, we went to work.

B decided on cavalletti poles for this lesson. There were only three poles set up in a fan-like arrangement. Gus could walk or trot the poles (not enough spacing for a canter, though Gus certainly tried and DID manage to canter them once, by mistake).

After warming up at the walk and trot (sans poles), B had us do a 20ish meter circle around the poles, gradually spiraling the circle inwards, so we would go over the poles. We probably made about five passes over the poles at different places, before we needed to spiral back out. Once we reached the 20m circle again, it was off to the canter for a lap, then counter-canter for two laps, then rinse and repeat. We did the same exercise twice, both directions.

We did our walk work at the end. This time is was only working on turn on the forehands because I brought it up. Silly me. Gus actually thought he was done, multiple times throughout our lesson. It was quite funny. So, I finally figured out which direction equals disaster for Gus. It's turn on the forehand to the right (so moving off my right leg). He is a MONSTER. Does not want to do them, period. At one point we were doing mini-rears. For whatever reason, Gus finally figured it out, so we had about four nice turn on the forehands to the right and we called it quits.

He was drenched in sweat. Almost comical how much he was sweating ... but when the temperatures are in the 60s-low 70s, what do you expect? Thank GOD I'm "crazy" and body clip my horse.

Gus also had his pedicure yesterday, complete with the new dancing shoes. They are aluminum Natural Balance shoes. Kinda spendy. Not sure what to think about the trim as his heels are still pretty tall ... and underrun.

We'll see how the shoes work ... so far (as in hours after they were applied) so good.

And here's what the view looked like leaving the barn last night ... it was GORGEOUS outside.