Excellent!

"There are only two emotions that belong in the saddle; one is a sense of humour, and the other is patience" - John Lyons

Vallu has slowly been coming back to normal, the stiffness caused by the swelling in his hind leg is totally gone and he is much more happy to go forwards and work with me. After a few really easy days, I've been working on flexibility and transitions in order to get him to respond quicker to my leg aids, and get him to move through his back. During the easy days, we spent a lot of time in the woods, with the end result of both of us being able to actually relax there! Major achievement!!

Giraffe anyone?

I plan on carrying on working on our hacking, I really want to get him to that stage where we can just canter around like it's no big deal. Right now, trotting around isn't overly exciting for Vallu anymore (which roughly translates to Vallu isn't going a 100mph like a trotter pulling the reins out my hands by blocking his jaw and lifting his head high in the air) so the next final challenge is to get him to relax in canter. We have managed to canter 20 meters already but it is literally like sitting on a ticking time bomb, he's just sooooo excited to be cantering that I have absolutely no ability to control him. I think that he's having so much fun that he forgets that he's carrying a rider too! 

LONG REINS AND RELAXED!!!

Double bling boot and spur strap! I'm sure at one point in my life I will "what was I thinking?!?" but right now, I am totally and absolutely in love with these boots. Hi my name is Roosa and I have a bling addiction :D Blinged out boots, spur straps, gloves and hat, I'm doing well!

I couldn't resist sharing this photo with everyone! Every now and then Vallu will do these random 'spook and take off's when he's full of energy and wants to go fast, but so far no one has managed to capture it. This is the "leap forwards" stage which comes after the first "shoulder drop and spook", which is then followed by gallop down the long side of the arena. I'm surprised at how I don't find these scary anymore, it's just his way of showing off his speed to everyone ;) There's been so much personal progress after 2 years of riding Vallu, it's astounding what some TLC can do to a horse, and how he has made me trust him as well.

Please excuse my hands, I'm in the middle of shorterning my reins!

Now only a further thousand transitions and a few hundred lateral movements to do, after that I think I'll have a pretty flexible and responsive pony ;)