Wizard Ride 43: Follow the Leader

Sunday, 2/1/09

The unseasonably warm weather gave me a touch of spring fever. Wizard must have felt it as well since he was a complete mudball when I saw him tonight. I took an Oster Mane and Tail Brush and curried him. He protested the amount of elbow grease I used but not as badly as he has in the past. After I took the crust off of him, he barely looked better, but at least he had no mud on him. That’s the good thing about a bay horse with minimal white :^)

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes, including 5 minutes of walking as a warmup. We worked on spiraling in and out at the trot as a suppling exercise. At first, he was a little confused and stopped to face me- he usually just goes into auto-pilot when he trots on the longe so the new work was a big question mark for him. Once I refined my commands, he understood and came in and back out onto the circle in both directions.

After longeing, I rode for about 10 minutes. We played “follow the leader” with Christie and Mary the Morgan. We followed about 7 lengths behind them and rode around the arena, walking patterns and between obstacles. Wizard was fantastic- we both responded really well to a new exercise. One of the reasons we did this schooling is because several new boarders are at the barn and I think that we’ll be riding in company more often. Usually, I ride in the evening and we are by ourselves.

Since we were trying new things, I dismounted from the right side. Wizard’s reaction? No biggie- he stood nicely as usual. Tomorrow night, we’re planning a mini lesson with Sarah- I’m looking forward to it :^)