This weekend Maxwell and I, along with Kristina and Legato, had another lesson. It's so refreshing after a LONG time without lessons, to have goals to achieve, and things to work on during our rides. Maxwell decided that learning lateral work was just too much for him, and he firmly planted his feet on the ground in protest. Courtney, our trainer, hopped on him and after a BUNCH of pushing, got him to give a little bit. He's starting to get test-y now that he's being asked to do more work. In addition to that, we had a heck of a time with the right lead canter during this lesson. However, a couple of small tight circles on the wrong lead was a great way to communicate to Max that he would be better off just picking up that right lead and feeling much more balanced. We worked on a few cross rails at the end, and discussed a bit change. He has a Full Cheek French Link Snaffle in the mail on it's way to us. Currently he's going in a Loose Ring French Link Snaffle, but we discussed that a Full cheek would probably be beneficial at this point in his training. Maxwell was so exhausted after his lesson in lateral work and right leads, that he literally drank an entire bucket of water in 3 minutes, and stood in front of his fan with his head hanging, quickly drifting off into nappy land before I even left the farm.
Sunday he got the day off, and I set out to bathe three horses (him included). I got him all dolled up for the week (to quickly be destroyed by mud, I'm sure. I haven't seen him since his bath yesterday and won't until tomorrow) and took a picture to show his body changes. He is really starting to get some muscle, topline, and is filling out rather nicely!
of course he couldn't manage to NOT make funny faces with his lips...per usual :-D
I'm extremely excited for this delightful gelding. He is everything to me, and when we make progress it's like winning the lottery, whether it's progress under saddle, with his feet, his weight, his muscle, or anything else. I have never gotten so many nice compliments on a horse before. I had many "she's so beautiful"'s about Bella, but I have loads and loads of people complimenting me on how he looks when he is under saddle, how he looks in general, and how it looks as though he's going to make one special creature (he already is, folks!)
I have been keeping an exercise log of Maxwell's activities since starting Cavalor WholeGain, and I will probably post it here soon. Right now it's in an excel spreadsheet and I just don't feel like dealing with getting it onto here today....
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