Even with all the excitement, the last three rides have been pretty stinking amazing.  He's had a few moments where he'd rather scream and stare, but I'm getting pretty good at convincing him to go.

On Saturday, the husband hung out in my car while I rode.  Even so, I was able to ride for about half and hour.  I focused on really, really getting him to move forward in both directions and to stop poking around at a snail's pace.  While I was hosing off Archie, I got the call about the other horse coming.  By the time I'd changed clothes in preparation for dinner downtown (Snickers martini!  my favorite restaurant!), BO and her buddy were there.  Awkward.

So here's something.  I hope the video shows it a little bit, because I don't think I can describe it.  It's really.. difficult for me mentally to canter up this little hill, but going down is a breeze.  I think it's because the trees block part of the path and it feels so much tighter.  Anyways, we conquered it on Saturday.  :)

Sunday, we did the downward transitions that we didn't do the day before.  I almost didn't ride because I'd been there earlier in the day for the arrival of the new horse and it was disgusting.  By six or so, the skies had cleared and I would have been a sucker to not ride.  Both days, he picked up beautiful canters and my little ass stayed firmly in the saddle.  He actually blew through the bit a little on right lead on Sunday, which tells me that he feels pretty good.

Last night, we worked on our figure eights and alternated maintaining, halting and extensions on the straight part.  See, this is what happens when you don't have a trainer:  you have to develop your own lesson plan.  After all that speed work, we cantered and did some jumps.  The kid, who actually isn't a kid because she drove herself to the barn, had been trying out her new horse prior to my arrival.  If I thought my killer cross rail was panic-inducing the crap she was jumping was way worse.  Also, her trainer took down my raised trot pole.  So I put it back.  :)

What, like 2'6'' in the center, maybe?

Standing like a good boy while I made adjustments.

When the fourth horse came, BO was talking about how I needed to show Archie.  She's said this in the past and, when it was just me or just me and Duke's mom, it wasn't a far stretch.  But since the barn has been overrun with kids taking lessons (every day!), my visions of showing have obliterated.  And the way that she said it sort of made me feel.. weird.  BO has a killer business sense and values profit.  I felt like an untapped profit.  If I had my own trailer and the husband came with me and that was it, no one else, no other obligations, I would love to.  I really preferred IHSA to schooling H/J shows.