Last weekend Pony and I competed at Inavales recognized 3 day. It was HOT (over 100 Thurs-Sat), it was exhausting, and I want to do it again tomorrow! In true Mystic fashion he was amazing and I could not have asked more from him... except for maybe that pulled rail ;)
Dressage was on Friday smack dab in the heat of the day. I got on 10 minutes before my test, walked for 5, the trotted and cantered as little as possible before heading into the ring. The worst part about this event is the footing in the dressage area. It is all out on grass and it is pretty lumpy and bumpy. He felt very unsure and cautious on it and we actually had quite a difficult ride but luckily for us we can own the "fake it till you make it" statement and ended dressage with a 28.4.
All pictures credited to Alanna!
Saturday was show jumping and although we rode about an hour earlier then on Friday it was still super hot by the time we went. The biggest thing I hate about show jumping is there is no ride time which makes it hard to judge what time you need to get on when you have a horse that you only need to pop over 5 fences before going in. It was a hurry up and wait game and I had him out much longer then I needed but we sat and watched for most of it while his adoring fans came by and said hi to him. I knew after popping him over the first warm up fence that he was on his game and he did not disappoint. I think he actually surprised a lot of people watching! He definitely was much more backed off to the fences but overall had a great round. Sadly I celebrated a little too early and we pulled the very last rail! It was a huge bummer but I was so pleased with how he rode over those dressed up fences.
Sunday morning I woke up to 55 degree weather instead of 70 (at 5 in the morning!) and prayed it would stay that way. You know you live in Oregon when you can go from riding in 100 degree heat to riding in the rain within 24 hours. It could not have been more perfect weather for us to do XC in! I got to warm up and my friend alerted me when I had 15 minutes left. The warm up lady then mentioned that they were running early so I could go sooner. We trotted a lap, cantered a lap, popped over a cross rail twice, then popped over a log twice and headed for the start box. He came up to the first 3 fences really backed off which is totally normal for him but he was willing to go still. Unlike normal he never really got 'unstuck' and would have loved to have stopped at several fences had I not been really riding him to them. After fence 6 and having pretty much the same ride to every fence I realized it probably wasn't going to change and I just had to really ride him to everything. It wasn't the most flowing and gorgeous round but we got it done, didn't get lost, and made time! I know his stickiness is purely lack of experience and will get better but I was very pleased that even know I knew he was thinking "Lady you are straight up crazy" he still went even if it wasn't very pretty.
Another thing I loved was that he recovered quite nicely! By the time we walked back to the trailer (granted, it is a little walk) he was breathing normally and by the time he was untacked and I had half changed he was pretty much dry. Not that he couldn't be in even better shape but I was happy with it for BN.
It doesn't hurt to come home with some loot either :) We ended up finishing third on a 32.4. Along with this gorgeous ribbon we won a dressage saddle pad that I seriously wanted, a set of polos, and some Vetrycin. We are still chasing our blue ribbon as I have messed it up for us twice now. Had we not dropped that rail we would have won (in a field of 21)! I came home with a happy and healthy pony and we cannot wait to hit another one! Pony Power!
I have totally given up on posting, mostly due to time, the fact that we haven't really done much, and I haven't been super motivated due to some bad rides, but I really wanted to get these thoughts down from our weekend so I could look back on them!
Since my last post we went to a one day dressage show where we cleaned up some areas and totally botched others including getting our first 4 ever... Overall we still got a 64 % but I was definitely feeling frustrated with where we were at. Then I had a lesson scheduled in hopes of our trainer talking me off the edge but had to cancel due to crazy insane busy week I had trying to get Mylo moved home.
I was looking forward to this weekends clinic with Jessica Wisdom but I was also slightly worried that we would show up and make fools of ourselves at our own barn. In usual Pony fashion he came to play and we had an amazing weekend. It definitely inspired me to keep going and showed me that we have the potential to keep moving up. Day 1 we spent getting to know each other and really tuning Pony up to my aids. She really emphasized that I cannot be nagging him every step and that he needs to be held accountable for staying in front of my leg once I ask him. We did lots and lots of transitions from collected trot to extended trot and back to collected trot which kept him on my aids and waiting for his next que. We also did exercises like taking him from shoulder in to renver and overall just getting him more supple and easier to move off my leg. Sadly, I did not get video of this day so I have already started forgetting smaller details but I do know that I left that lesson feeling very good and already looking forward to the next day. I felt like we got some of the best trot work we have had and got some good insight on what I need to do to maximize our scores and some changes I need to make in every day riding.
Day 2 ended up being better then I could have ever asked for! We were all well acquainted with each other from the day before so we went right to work. She started off by asking us to do a walk pirouette, you know those things we have never done before! Although we have done half turn on the haunches we haven't solidified them yet so naturally our first attempt was quite large and she had a nice laugh at me before telling me to ride my horse better ;) Each attempt got better and our last one ended with some great last steps. Luckily I did get some phone video this day so I could watch it! She spent some time really emphasizing how much we need to improve our walk. I tend to push him more forward into a bigger walk when I really need to get him more in a quicker more engaged walk. She actually stuck us on the wall and came out with a lunge whip to tap his hind legs which really helped, obviously, and we got the most amazing canter transition I have ever gotten from him coming directly out of it. She also mentioned that she thinks teaching him half steps will really help improve his walk. We added some half pass that she thought were definitely useable! She had us start the long side in shoulder in, turn that into renver about half way down the wall and then take the renver down the centerline into half pass. One thing I really need to be careful about is making sure his shoulders are leading. Half pass? Check. What next? Now she has us pick up the canter and do a 6 loop serpentine from the wall to the center line down the long side of the arena. After under riding the first 2 loops I got him regrouped and we ended with a great last few. Definitely not something I would have thought we could pull out but it will for sure be a new item on the "what to master next" list!
Now we are at the end of our lesson and she was checking in on how Pony was feeling and if I thought he had more gas in his tank and if so what did I want to end on. Honestly, I had no idea! We had already been doing stuff that we had never done before with success and I was very happy with all of it. I would have been happy stopping there! As I said I didn't know what else I wanted to work on she casually threw out the "has he been started on changes?" question. Yes he has but we haven't really worked much on them because although he gets what the question is I haven't been able to figure out how to ride them well enough to get clean ones in lessons so they have strictly been a 'lesson only' topic for the last while and we haven't worked on them much. She had us start counter cantering on a circle, another new for us, and worked on establishing a shoulder in while in the counter canter and really getting him off my inside leg since he just wanted to fall in the circle instead of maintaining his balance. Tracking left (he is on the right lead) was pretty hard for us and involved him swapping leads every few strides on his own before we got some good solid counter canter circles and called it on that before even asking for a change. Tracking right (on the left lead) was much easier pretty much from the get go. We worked on improving his counter canter on that circle until I could really feel that a good change was possible. All the sudden I felt him really want to change but from a really nice canter and two strides later we had done a 100% clean change! What a perfect stopping point, huh? Jessica even said that it was the perfect way to end the clinic weekend.
JW had some really encouraging things to say about Mystic which is always very nice to hear. She teaches some Gypsys at home and said that he had surprisingly good movement for one and made sure to remind me (not that I needed it) that I have one super nice horse. She thinks that he has the ability to go much further in dressage then I could ever imagine but also noted that her final parting words to me was that I really needed to work on his fitness. She told me some of what she does with Cardi which was helpful. Im really looking forward to her coming back and can't wait to show her all of our progress!
I am looking forward to riding him better and continuing to improve our new tricks! Hopefully we will have a lesson with our regular trainer here in the next few weeks and can keep this good roll going :) Now if you have survived this long post here is a crummy cell phone video from parts of Sunday!
"Baby" Mylo is not only the cutest thing ever but is truely the best baby I could have ever imagined! Obviously he has his less than stellar moments but holy cow he amazes me!
Earlier in the week I took him ground driving outside for only his 2nd time and his first time in a bridle, that he had worn like 4 times, and he was foot perfect. Stopped, walked, trotted and backed with zero issues. The biggest problem we had was him wanting to eat the grass while walking!
Ground driving down the road
Keep in mind that he "works" about 2 days a week for about 15 minutes. I have to keep in mind that he is still not even 3 (will be in June) because he picks up on everything instantly. He is definitely the personality that doesn't need to be drilled doing one thing over and over but instead needs diversity in what he does so I try to change it up on him a lot.
He is always smiling
Flash forward to today and I figured I would just try long lining him. I mean, why not?! Wouldn't you know the little man went around walk, trot, canter, and stopped. Pretty sure he was born broke! I won't do too much of it in the next two months but it is clear that he won't need much! If he wasn't still so young I would totally feel great throwing a rider on him. He is going to be the singles cutest kids pony around!
Mystic has had a few days off this past week. He came out just a tad funny on Tuesday and I am not sure if it was just because I had ridden a different horse just before or what but I didn't want to push it. It wasn't awful he just felt different switching directions which is not usually the case. He was happy to walk down the road so I did that and called it a day. Since then I have been house sitting about 40 minutes away from the barn so I haven't even seen him since Wednesday. On top of that one of the dogs I am house sitting is old and on his last leg so I basically could get there to find him dead. That is not something I would enjoy (from previous experience) so I try to get there at a reasonable time just in case. Thankfully I have him eating good and he seems happy and well considering! Sunday I will head out and see how Mystic feels. When I lunged him I couldn't see anything so I think it just may have been my imagination but better its always better to be safe than sorry.
As long as all is well we can get back to work for the next week and a half before I leave for spring break family vacation! All of us kids were told that we were going to Vegas which had us super excited and ready to get out of town for a week. Well it turns out that we are not going to Vegas... we are going on a cruise to Mexico! It was supposed to be a surprise but someone leaked so we all found out :) The next 2 weeks cannot go by fast enough! This also means that Pony will most likely have a week off which is not ideal. I told one of my friends that she can ride him but she also has her horse so I am not sure if she will have time or not. I was hoping to hit a league show on the 5th of April but I'm not sure I should swing it if he won't be in work for over a week just before.
Mylo got some new big boy 'toys'
Is that not the cutest thing you have seen?! I am starting to think about where to send him late summer to get started. I have a few ideas, we will just see how it all pans out. I keep telling him if he just decided to sprout up all our problems would go away!
Thoughts after watching it:
1) Thank God it normally looks better then it feels! It didn't look that much better then it felt but it didn't look like a complete train wreak.
2) Shoulder in? Who needs to do those?! Apparently not us ;)
3) I think our first turn on the haunches wasn't bad for just learning them days before. The 2nd one I laughed after because it was rough... real rough!
3) Good bye simple changes, I hope you return soon!
4) That last canter serpentine was hard to watch, what was I doing?!
Overall I was not riding him strong enough and wasn't getting him off and bent around my inside leg which although it was obvious in our shoulder in was even more obvious in our bad simple changes. Normally we can rock those a lot better. I am glad I got the video and cannot wait to replace it with a much better one next time :)
And now for completely non show related pictures of this adorable creature!
Not a fan of his new bit!
Rocking ground driving (in a halter) like none other!
Our 2015 show season didn't start out the way it could have and with that came with quite a bit of disappointment and frustration. With that being said none of it was with my horse, it was purely on me, which only makes it more frustrating!
He thinks living at this place would be acceptable
I was going to wait to post till I got my hands on the video and could watch it but it was pretty obvious while riding it what was missing and it was confirmed with the judges comments, I was in no way riding him like a 2nd level horse. We had a pretty hard lesson on Monday and I thought that I had made some headway on those issues throughout the week but in the ring I just lost it all. And by all, I mean all! I think that two issues going into our test was that I got on him too early (even though we did a lot of walking warm up) and he felt tight and nervous in warm up. Im not sure if it had to due with the more upper level riders in the small arena with us (schooling temps, half passes, etc) that were kind of everywhere but either way our warm up was less than ideal. I felt kind of stuck and unsure of how to get us out of the hole I dug us into!
Pretty proud of this braid!
Before going to do our test I felt like we had made some progress and just tried to focus on keeping him relaxed and moving off my leg. Heading into our test I pretty much just dropped him and couldn't ever get him where I needed him. It wasn't that we didn't do any of the movements it was just that they were all lacking in some area, except our free walk, Pony is always happy for a free walk! Generally we can put in a solid test with areas lacking and areas where we do very well but this one felt like I was fighting a losing battle with nothing coming together. It was more of a close your eyes and pray it ends soon kind of a thing!
Judge commented "SO freaking cute" on his test. Yes, yes he is!
Wouldn't mind this view every day while riding
On the plus side, there is no where to go but up! We still have a lot of work ahead of us and a lot to learn. Our struggles are not in areas such as spookiness or lack of obedience and the judge did comment that it was a "nice, clean test which is super". Now it is just a matter of putting all the pieces together in the show ring like we can at home. I think I need our trainer to make an audio recording that I can listen to while at shows, now that would be helpful! In the end we got a 62% (they didn't calculate it for me so when I first did it I thought we got under that, every little bit helps!). At the end of the day my horse is home, happy, stuffed with treats, and probably calling our trainer to tell her that his mom needs to learn to ride better :)
We are officially within a week of kicking off our 2015 show season! Granted it is just a schooling show but it will be a great place to debut at 2nd level test 3 and a major bonus is that it is at DevonWood, only one of the best places to ride ;) The nice part about this schooling show series, in my mind not in many others, is that it doesn't seem to be judged quite as easily as most. I would rather get slammed at a schooling show so that I know what I need to fix before hitting the recognized shows. With that being said I don't plan on having a bad ride and am not worried about putting in a respectable test even though I know we will have room for improvement.
Goals for this weekend:
-Rides the pants off the test as I only have one shot!
-Id be lying if I didnt say I wanted to break 64%
-Ride a very accurate test (aka ride an even 3 loop serpentine... not as easy as it looks!)
Overall I want to continue the theme started last year of actually being able to ride my horse better in my tests instead of going into to pilot mode and taking what ever he is giving me. If there is any place to do it, it is at a show like this one!
Mystic got his pedicure on Friday, a very mini spa day yesterday, and we have a lesson tonight! We haven't really worked on the half turn on the haunches and it just happens to be a coefficent both ways so hopefully we can figure those out a little more tonight. Luckily for us our simple changes are also coefficients and when I ride him well into them we are capable of getting very nice scores. I am so looking forward to seeing how we do! Now to just get through the week with good rides :)
As much as I love jumping it is just not something that I do year round with Mystic. Probably the biggest reason is due to the fact that we only have an indoor arena and it is a pain in the butt to have to drag all the fences out and put them away. Another reason is that I know my horse, like everyone else's, has a certain number of jumps in him and I hope by not pounding him it will prolong his jumping life! Plus he is totally game and bouncing around beginner novice does not require him to jump year round or more than once a week during competition season. Last weekend we had our first jump school of 2015. In one sense it feels like we start back over every year but in another it feels like we just picked up where we left off. Obviously we had to knock some rust off but it is not nearly as bad as it could be! Today was our 2nd jump school and it was even better. I did a combination of poles and cross rails so its nothing to crazy but we did some more technical stuff today and he picked it up really well! We will continue to jump once a week and also will be adding in a conditioning ride along with our normal dressage rides in hopes of increasing our fitness. If all goes as plans we will be rocking BN at our more local 3 day in June!
Friday I had a little "bring your horse to work" day as Mystics vet has dental days at their barn. My boss was kind enough to pick him up and he got to take a field trip to her barn for the day. He had some pretty nasty points and ulcers on his cheeks from his teeth, poor Pony! I felt bad because I let him go over a year, I won't be making that mistake again. He still has his 'snaggle' tooth but she still thinks it will eventually fall out and it doesn't look it he has an adult one under it. He just looks funny when he smiles. Later in the day my boss got to ride him (she has wanted to for a long time!) and since he had a whole crowd watching he then got to give pony rides to a few more people too.
It is still hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I have had Mylo 7 months now! It seems like yesterday when I received a super awkward picture of him from the hauler and was thinking "what did I just get myself into?!". Luckily for me he came off the trailer the cutest little pony ever, although he was still quite awkward! Being it was it 2nd birthday when he arrived I obviously knew he had growing and weight gaining to do but it has been very fun to see him change over the months!
Day 1 after some clean up
I had him for about a week or two
Im hoping to find my height tape so I can measure him but he has definitely been going through a growth spurt. He has lost weight, gotten leaner, and seems overall just bigger. I had a feeling he was starting a spurt as I was noticing that he had dropped some weight but it was more apparent after I clipped him so he gets to have another meal during the day now. He isn't skinny by any means just a little leaner (which I guess isn't bad since he is a growing baby anyways!). The little man needs all the help he can get in the growing department!
2 year old year in full swing... so mouthy!
One thing that has surprised me is how much his hair has come in. Yeah he was only 2 but his feather was very minimal and even at 2 they should have a decent amount. Both his mane and feather have at least doubled in thickness and what used to be the longest part of his mane is now the shortest. It is amazing what good nutrition and care can do! He isn't even on any extra hair/coat supplements and I haven't oiled or MTGed his feather. Now if he could just be 5 now so I can see what he will look like as a mature adult that would be awesome ;)
Our barn has a Facebook page just for the boarders so that we can communicate better with each other. Since it is a smaller private barn a lot of us are on different schedules and often don't see each other much. A fellow boarder posted that Sunday was supposed to be really nice at the beach and it would be fun to go. Of course you can count me in on a beach trip anytime! Only 3 of us went but it was a total blast and the weather was the most perfect it has ever been.... and its January! It was seriously tank top and short weather, which on the Oregon coast isn't common, and we had low tide timed perfectly. Not only was the weather perfect but between the 3 horses one hadn't been ridden since Septmeber (mostly pasture pet who subbed in for the owners horse who is currently without a shoe and recovering from an abcess) and another who has never been to the beach they were perfect. We ended up spending the better part of two hours out there. Couldn't have asked for a better Sunday!
Easily one of my favorite places to ride! Along with the XC course :)
Sunday night Mystic also had an appointment with a body work guy. I had met him in one of my classes when he came to do a demo for us and was intrigued by it. This guy does massage/accupressure stuff before adjusting and I was very impressed with Mystics response to it all. You could really tell when he had found a sore spot on Mystic and could also tell when it started feeling good. Ponys lip got to twitching, his eyes softened, and his head was all but touching the ground. The guy said that he was pretty out in his shoulder and lower back region and it took a solid 2 hours to get him all straightened out. The really cool part about this guy is that he completely works on the horses time. Sometimes it only takes an hour sometimes he spends over three on just one horse. He had me walk him down the aisle way when he was finished and it was amazing how much lighter he walked. Instead of loud clumpy steps he took longer and lighter steps. I am really looking forward to riding him and seeing if I can really feel a difference. He recommends that they get done 4-6 times a year depending on their work but also says that each horse is different and to just see when Mystic shows signs of tightness again. I am going to plan on having him back in March. Mystic is pretty stoic so I want to be more proactive about staying on top of it, especially with a harder work load coming up this summer.
Then to continue our streak of exciting things we had a spectacular lesson tonight! He is feeling better than ever and continues to amazing all of us with his dressage ability, that from just looking at him he shouldn't have! We are completely ready to get to showing 2nd level test 3 next month and I am excited to see how we do. With the work we get in our lessons I have no doubt that we can get a respectable score. Looking forward to a bigger and even better 2015 show season! Pony Power :)
Pony and I finally had a lesson on Monday night! It was our first lesson in over 3 months due to lameness in September, slowly bringing him back in October, and then him having a nice little 2 month vacation over November/December where we rode a few days a week and didn't get the saddle out for most of it. Since coming back we have had some not so nice rides. It all started off nice but in the last week and a half we were in the slow lane on the struggle bus. Thankfully our wonderful trainer put it all in perspective for me and got all our wheels spinning again. Looking at the big picture I was trying to ride him like a conditioned 2nd level horse when really we needed to go back to our 1st level frame and work. She got me to really let go of my reins so that I was not just 'holding' him up and by the end he felt very loose and supple. The longer reins took some getting used to but because he was so quick to reward me with every small adjustment it made it easier to feel. For me the struggle will be finding that fine line between giving him his head and letting him carry himself but still being able to effectively half halt him and not let him run through my outside rein. To continue all of our progress from this week we are doing another lesson on Monday! I am envious of people who get weekly lessons, we would make so much progress in a program like that.
Monday nights lesson was a great ending to my birthday weekend. He gave me a great birthday ride and my mom got us a Back on Track mesh sheet! Technically I knew I was getting it, and paid for half of it, but still... I love it. Our new routine involved a 45 minutes marination before our rides and I even got my friend using hers again so our boys soak together pre ride. Im looking forward to him getting to wear it all night and also using it at shows.
Birthday picture with his new BOT sheet :)
Then I got some birthday money and have been holding back from going crazy, not sure its working too well though! I ordered him an ear bonnet and Im pretty sure its going to be adorable. 1) I think they are super adorable but that doesn't justify using one enough (especially with all this hair that I will have to figure out) so 2) He is super sensitive to flies. You would think with all that hair he wouldn't care but he twitches like none other in the summer. So bad that when I put his saddle pad on he twitches it all the way to his butt. Plus they are custom and super reasonably priced, even if I do have to wait 10 weeks to get it. It will be just in time for some events!
His will look this this except the brown will be navy and the purple will be red
On top of that I am on the hunt for a memory foam half pad and I might be pulling the trigger on an Ogilvy (NWOT dressage one for $20 cheaper, plus free shipping and no wait time). I was really hoping to find a used Ecogold or Ogilvy one but knew it wasn't going to be easy. Still doesnt make it easier to swallow the cost of one! To continue my good month I also got $200 worth of EquiFUSE hair products (that I love so much) for free for winning a contest.
Mylo is loving his life now that he has a girlfriend to play with. On the down side he is so incredibly hairy, and obviously not in any kind of working shape, that he gets super sweaty. I think I'm going to clip him this weekend. I hate to do it, especially since he isn't 'working' but I do not like putting a horse away wet, especially when it still gets a little chilly at night, but it takes over an hour for him to dry because his hair is so long and thick. At least that way I won't feel like I can't let him play with his friend. A happy baby is the only kind of baby that I want! He has been handling the no pasture thing very well but getting him out to run is definitely a must to keep him happy!
That hair do didn't last long...
It is supposed to be nice this weekend so post hair cut/bath pictures will be done :)
First I will start with how the clinic went this past weekend before we get to the fun "how much money should I spend on which one" question ;)
Although I was not able to ride in Jessica Wisdoms clinic I did go and audit all 5 rides and picked up some cool exercises. Even though watching makes you want to ride even more it was also fun to see the transformations in each horse by the end of lesson. Watching her teaching style has made me even more excited to ride with her. She adapts super well from rider to rider and has several different exercises or ways to explaining a concept to help each rider better understand what she was getting at. You could tell how she would feel out each riders way of learning in the first 10 minutes and change her way of teaching from then on out. Pretty cool! Since most of the horses were more green beans most of the exercises Pony can already do profiecently but it was cool to learn why she was having the riders do the exercises and to see how it translated to the overall picture that each rider was trying to achieve. I did also get to see our dressage trainer ride and although we are no where near their level I could related to their underlying problems, such as straightness, and how it effects every single movement as you go up the levels. I am looking forward to riding with her when she comes back in May, especially since we will actually be more on our game then anyways. For the mean time I am SUPER pumped to get back to lessons with our dressage trainer next week. We need a solid butt kicking!
On a super fun note... I won a contest on Facebook! I never win any contests which is probably why I am so competitive when winning is up to me Haha! We won $95 worth of our favorite EquiFuse products. Im telling you, if you want not only a gorgeously beautiful clean horse but also for them to smell heavenly you need to try these. I will have to do a whole post on them sometime because, yes, they are that amazing!
Our winning picture :)
Now to the hard part! I am going to look into getting new Ariat tall boots this spring. Through my work I get an amazing discount on them, the only problem is that they do not make mens dress boots (I really need a mens height, even women tall is too short). So, do I just stick with women dress boots and have them short or go to a mens field boot? I don't know that I feel ride riding at recognized dressage shows at potentially third level (sometime in our future) in field boots. Is that too picky?!
Monoco field boots (I thought I posted the dress ones but guess not. I would get these but in the dress boots, not field!):
Westchester dress boot:
The Monocos are quite a bit more expensive but with my discount it would still be a steal for them. I think that because they both have the high cut spanish tops it may help them look taller on my legs then my current ones. Personally I am a fan of the Monocos but if they are just the better of two evils (fit wise) Im not sure I want to spend more to get them! What do you guys think?
So far 2015 is off to a great start! Mysic and I are getting back into our groove and have been building our strength and stamina back after some down time and he is doing super well. There is a Jessica Wisdom clinic at our barn this weekend that was super last minute and I sadly didn't have time to scrape up the funds to do it. Instead I will go watch everyone have fun until next time she comes!
Mylo and Mystic got matching rain sheets and it's pretty adorable if I do say so.
Mylo continues to be his usual comical self and is always keeping me entertained. He is learning how to walk/trot on big circles on lunge line but because he is still only 2.5 I only do it about 1x a week. Luckily he listens to voice commands while free lunging!
Show season is quickly approaching and we are slowly getting ready. First show is end of February. Let 2015 begin :)
