Rama 7.7.2013

Happy face! 

Brave boy

Yesterday when I was lunging Vallu, three little girls came by the indoor arena and all wanted to come give Vallu a big pat and a cuddle. It was so sweet, and I am so proud of Vallu that he was so brave. It looks like he is starting to learn that you can trust people, even the small ones!

  Vallu now has a mini fan club

Enjoying life

Vallu has been enjoying life recently, we've been taking it easy after several weeks of training, and so finally we had a nice gentle week of lots of walk work, lunging and pole work. 

Trotting and cantering over poles was great fun for Vallu, whereas I was in a state of near constant heart-attacks every time he went over the poles. Nothing happened, and Vallu was very happy with the work!

He was even brave enough to face the dreaded stepladder that was lying on the floor in the wrong place!

Four of these photos were taken with Instagram, and if you have Instagram why don't you go follow us: roosa_rantanen

Basse having fun!

Basse had his day off, and I decided to let him loose in the arena and have some fun. Basse knows how to behave, but I do insist on him wearing boots and over-reach boots on all four legs in order to protect his legs. Since he is such a sweetheart and very kind to every rider, I believe he deserves to let off some steam every once in a while.

Clever boy, will do anything for food

Off we go

Blergh...

After a few days of proper training with Vallu, all of the pizzazz has gone out of him. I even tried to do some piaffe, which normally he loves to show off, but even that was horrible. 

He has been truly fantastic for the last three days before yesterday. The softness and roundness that we've been working on with Sanna is coming quicker and better each time I ride him, and Vallu seems to be content with the work too. Everything was going so well that we started working on flying changes (which were great!) and even a little bit of canter half-pass (they were rusty but great fun to ride) 

And then yesterday, it was as if all the energy and happiness had been sucked out of him. Was he just tired, too hot, uncomfortable or just not feeling like working? I don't know what was wrong, but after weeks of fantastic work, it was a real shock to me. So today he got an easy lunge, and then tomorrow a walking day with some pole work and hopefully he will cheer up again...

The video below is from last week during my lesson with Sanna when Vallu was really really good!