2nd Lesson with Mary

Tonight I had my second lesson with Mary O'Rourke. I was really looking forward to this lesson as Louie and I have worked hard to make improvements from our last lesson. I got to the barn about 4:00 pm. MaryJo was in the arena taking a lesson riding Arthur. Apparently there had been a bit of an upset with the lesson due to the people that are moving into the apartment. The were making a lot of noise and had doors and windows open that could be seen from the arena that give Arthur quite a fright and Mary almost decided to cancel all lessons for the night for fear someone would get hurt. But, by the time I arrived, things had quieted down. MaryJo was just mounting up on Arthur and ended up having a good lesson from what I could see.

Louie was quite interested in who was in the arena while on the cross ties but was otherwise quiet and good while I groomed and tacked him up. I took him into the arena as soon as MaryJo was done and lunged him a bit. He behaved well but his head was up and he was looking like he was feeling his oats. ACK! He didn't look worried or spooked, just ...... energetic. Mary took his bit down to the bathroom to run it under some warm water so it wouldn't be so cold to put in his mouth. Louie approved! Louie was very quiet and stood nicely when I mounted. And though he was feeling a bit "fresh" and was a little silly, he was a very good boy tonight overall. He did remember the strange drilling noises from last night and didn't want to walk along that wall. The first time he went by it sidepassing so he could keep his face to the wall. The next couple times around Mary walked in front of him and that made him feel much better. After that he was pretty good. There were a bunch of people in the viewing room tonight and Louie kept wanting to stop and watch them. Kind of like watching TV! His steering was pretty good tonight. A couple time he got a little stiff but mostly he was very nice. And we did quite a bit of work at the trot tonight and he kept up a nice, fairly steady trot. We were MUCH improved from last week. Mary was much happier to see Louie in his new bit. Louie has been much happier with the bit so, of course, I am much happier. I still need to do a lot of work with Louie on flexing and bending. After the lesson, I just let Louie stand in the middle of the arena while Mary made much of him and boy oh boy did he soak up all the loving. I've never known an equine that loves to be loved on as much as Louie does.

When I brought him out of the arena, Cierra was tacking up Marie for her lesson. I offered to bridle Marie for her so handed Louie over to her to hold. And she loved all over him and he was just in mule heaven. Cierra has nicknamed Louie "Cuddlebug". It's a very fitting nickname. I watched just a little bit of Cierra's lesson before I left and she and Marie were looking great.