DAY TEN - Practice

Waited again until 3 in the afternoon yesterday to take Possum out for a ride. He had been hanging around all morning in his stall area, and by the time I groomed and tacked him up, he let out a few big "sighs," just to show how relaxed and comfortable he really is.

I mounted him from the stump in the paddock and walked around for a few minutes, then we walked out the gate and onto the road. I turned him left at first, although I planned on going right to the field, and he acted all googly eyed at one of Jeff's trucks that had been parked at the private way entrance all day. It was kind of funny to me, actually.

After working through our fears about the big, bad truck, we turned "north" and walked up to the Dodge field. Big Mack was in his paddock and was very "chill" about Possum and I arriving. Possum wanted to have a meet and greet more than Mack! Once Mack ambled over and they blew noses for a few seconds, I turned Possum to the field and we worked in the same area where we had our lesson on Monday.

We trotted the figure eight a couple of times without stopping. Then we cantered both ways for most of a whole circle. He got a little "squeely and hoppy" for a few seconds, but I kicked him forward and he behaved. I felt better in my positioning, at least a little.

Then, we got back on to the road and walked in the field across the street from Lenny's, our first time since he's been back. We marched right through all of that tall grass, stopped at the top to take in the view, then down the hill around the back. I picked two small apples from one of the old apple trees growing there, and I ate one and I tucked the other in my chaps to feed Possum with his supper later.

 We left that field and crossed the road to the other field, and walked through even more tall grass and around to the back of the house. Then back up the road, we cantered almost all the way to the barn (well, not quite) - and then walked back towards home.

It hadn't been a whole hour yet, so we walked past the big, scary truck again, then down through Dad's secondary driveway and back up through the stone wall at the bottom. We hopped over the tiny little jump I made out of some tires and a big birch log. Back and forth a few times, wee! Then, I walked him up to the "big" jump, and he proceeded to knock one half of it down. So, we hopped over that, back and forth, a few times as well. Fun!

Then we walked back to the stable, he got a sponge bath and some hand grazing, and back to the paddock. Another very good day with a very good pony horse.