Sunday was a gorgeous day, so I went to the barn planning to hack the pony out (his feet are long so we can't do too much with him; he was suppose to get them reset two weeks ago but the farrier is apparently super ill and hasn't been able to make it out yet... super unfortunate) and when I got there my trainer and another lady were getting ready to go out as well. So I followed them out to this little field next to our farm (you have to go by a busy road to get there) and I was so proud of the pony; he was actually wanting to LEAD and investigate everything, which was very unlike him. He's so smart he notices EVERYTHING, but he's usually not too fond of walking right up to it and figuring out what it really is.

BUT THEN WE GOT TO THE DITCH! Mind you, this ditch was about 3 inches deep and 6 inches, if even, across. Clearly absolutely nothing to fuss over. But by God the pony was convinced there were demons hiding in that ditch ready to eat him. So, in my great attempt to try to get him over the damn thing, he threw his head up and whacked me under the right side of my jaw, which in turn sent a splitting pain up to my ear and over my head. I sat there for a second in shock, figured I was a live, jumped off and made him follow me over the ditch back and forth a few times on the ground before we finished our ride up. After which, I had a horrible splitting head ache and spent the next two days struggling to chew and taking lots of tylenol.

But yesterday I felt much better, so I went out to ride again and after a good session in the ring (we're working on canter-trot transitions. He likes to just stick his head up and disengage his hocks when coming down to a trot; so we've been working on keeping the forward energy and roundness into the trot, and we had a lot of good work wednesday!) we went out to the field and found another ditch and this time, I SAT THE HELL BACK, said "pony, you really only have one choice," and basically annoyed the shit out of him and wouldn't let him side pass around it until he FINALLY heaved himself over it, after which I gave him tons of praise and said "GOOD BOY" and the like. We turned around and came back at it, and he surprised me by not hesitating at all, but giving like a four foot jump over that ditch, me barely clinging on, but I managed to go with him and praise him again. And third time was a charm; walked right up to it like pros, took a little hop over it and cantered away easy-breezy. Pony again got lots of praise, and had a little ego-boost on himself, prancing all over the place. :)

I love to see the horses I work with progress and learn and build confidence in themselves and their riders. He was so cute afterwards, we even went through a puddle (total big NO for him; he's so metro, he hates getting dirty) with no fuss, and afterwards he was eating up me loving all over him and let me pull his mane no fuss. He was such a good boy. :) I wish I had the money to make him mine :'(