Return of the Perfect Pony

Success!  Charlie was very good today which makes me very happy!  I didn't have super high expectations so I guess that makes success a little easier to achieve.  But I don't care - it was a good ride especially since he's had basically 3 weeks off.

I lunged him for about 10 min just to be safe.  I wasn't really interested in hitting the dirt even if said dirt is fairly soft given all the rain we got yesterday.  He was pretty good and only played a little bit.  Then it was time to get on - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a smidge apprehensive.  As long as I've had Charlie, he's never had 3 weeks off.  Well, no need to worry.  He was very well behaved, even a little pokey which is just fine by me.  I focused primarily on keeping him forward, between my legs, and balanced.  I could definitely tell he's lost a bit of fitness.  He was a bit stiff (to be expected) and wasn't too thrilled to when I asked him to keep his balance back on his hind end but all in all, he was very good.

Here are a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago because I forgot in my excitement to take some today!

 

Handgrazing and of course the grass over there looks so much better...

 

Giving me the hairy eyeball when I tell him there's nothing wrong with the grass in front of his face.

 

Deciding that maybe I'm right!

Hopefully I'll be able to ride tomorrow as well - lesson on Tuesday so we may have some more remedial trailer loading in preparation...