Lessons, braids, and photos!

Today I got the barn waaaay before my lesson with J so I could practice yarn braiding Max. I'm starting to really like yarn in comparison to bands. It holds much better, and there's no chance of breakage. Yarn also allows me to keep his mane long, but still create button braids! I love it!

Max looking real pretty.

The lesson went incredibly well. We had ample time to warm up so I tested out Max's willingness to listen to my aids. The doxy must really be kicking in because the past few rides he's been really nice about giving me whatever I ask. Glad to see a lot of his resistance has gone away with his discomfort, understandably so!

During the lesson we mainly focused on getting his hind end under him. J had me do a few cross overs at a walk before transitioning into the walk and then into canter. There was some resistance there but after he figured out what I was asking he went ahead with it willingly enough.

"I want to stick my neck and tail up in the air like a hot Arabian stallion!"

We then practiced Intro B and Intro C for our upcoming show on May 3rd! It is going to be our very first show together and I cannot wait. He did wonderful in practice, albeit a little quick! Hot potato!

As if the day couldn't get any better, a good friend and barn-mate stopped by with her camera and took tons of pictures and videos of us. It was so very nice of her, and I sure was glad I braided him to the neck for our ride!

Here are some of her pics: