The next generation

The MHJA meeting was interesting, it was really fun to watch all the rounds of hunter derbies on the DVDS that Diane brought. The whole family came out the barn today so they could take some pictures with my niece Lily and Twinkie. Twinkie taught all of girls how to ride and he is in his mid thirties at least and definitely feeling his age recently. He adored all the attention, and was very good with Lily. After those guys left I hacked Werther outside, he started out a little distracted by Jingle Belle and Fiona, but he had Stoli for company so that help. Another really good day with the canter transition, I got the right lead first without having to use my stick, when went to left lead I had to use the stick twice and he was a little delayed picking it up, so I am going to start with that lead tomorrow. I ended the ride using a figure eight exercise to practice my turns and he was very smart about it, the first time we missed to lead on the straight line, but after that he was very good about picking it up. 

Hack

My older sister Katie and my niece Lily are coming in to town today so I had to go to the barn early this morning. That means I had to go catch Werther only a few hours after he had been turned out. T.J. was happy to see me, but Werther was not. Werther trotted a couple of circles around me before giving up and letting me catch him. Even though Werther could not see any horses from his stall he was very good, not frenzied as he was on Friday. I took Werther for a hack in the outdoor ring with my Mom riding Tryst. Werther was very good at the walk and trot, not at all distracted by the baby like he usually is. I really think I made a breakthrough with the canter transition. When I first asked him to pick up to right lead, he kept doing a hop step like he was going to break into the canter but then going back down to the trot, so I kept hands forward and used my stick until he broke into a canter about a quarter of the way down the long side from the originally corner I had asked him in. It was a very good forward canter, I even practiced doing trot canter transitions on the straight line going both directions. I feel like today was the first time he was actually listening to me instead of just agreeing to along with me. I wish Andre had been out there to see but she came out on Vinny just as I was walking out Werther. One more horsey thing tonight is the annual Minnesota Hunter Jumper Association Meeting. Mom, Tom, and Andre and I are all going, Diane Carney is going to give a talk on high performance hunter classes.