Two Good Louie Days

Yesterday evening I decided to go over and ride Louie with MaryJo. I went over about 5:00 PM. Tracy had the evening shift to feed and I figured she'd already have been there and gone. I actually got there before her. So, I then felt bad I hadn't called her to save her a trip over. But, it was nice to see her. The three of us hung out and chatted for a while. Tell tales of all our worst riding wrecks we'd either been in or seen. This is always a great way to get in the mood to ride.........

Louie was quiet while I groomed and saddled him. I've bought him a new bit. It another Myler (Though I'm still not convinced they are worth so much money....) It has the same mouth piece, the MB33, that I've been using on him but instead of having a long shank, it's the Pelham So, it has short shanks but also rings on the side so it can be used like a regular snaffle. I want to do some dressage training with him and the long shanked bit is just not going to work for this. I took Louie into the arena and did some ground work first. I set up ground poles and once again worked with a pole bending pole letting the lounge line catch on  it and knock it over. One time when the line caught it very close to him, he thought about spooking away. I saw him get the look in his eye and he twitched but caught him self and stop and turned toward the pole. GOOD LOUIE! He did good over the poles. For the first time he got the strides right over them a few time in each direction. A few time he stopped over a pole and asked if he could side pass over it. Smart boy, he remembers when we worked on doing this before and I was rewarding him with treats. MaryJo came out while I was still doing ground work. She was riding Tanguary.

I took Louie out of the arena and put him back on the cross ties to get his new bit fitted to him. Then I went back in and mounted up. He was a very good boy last night. I did like the new bit better. I could get a better feel of his mouth. I'm having troubles with is steering lately though. Not sure what that is all about. But, he is going calm and quiet. At the trot though, he drifts away from the arena wall and it's very had to keep him on it. he's not responding to either leg or rein like he should. Guess I know what we need to work on. He was quiet enough that I asked MaryJo if she'd like to ride him. She took me up on the offer. He was very quiet with her though his steering was just as poor. It was a good ride though. We did quite a bit of trotting and he went nice, other then drifting away from the wall. I was overall very pleased with our ride last night.

This evening I went over and gave Louie a much needed hair cut. He is such a good boy about getting clipped. He was extremely quiet and was nearly falling asleep on the cross ties while I worked. There was a clinic going on in the arena and a few people around. It was commented  on a few times on what a good boy he was being clipped. (big smile!)