Air Kaswyn

You know it's going to be a good ride when your trainer says "What's with your horse?"

When I got to the barn today it was a good 25-30 degrees cooler than it was for my lesson on Monday. Welcome to Cleveland - if you don't like the weather, wait a few hours and it will change. Anyhow, as I was grooming and tacking my horse I heard the CD player in the arena and I knew that my trainer was running through a musical freestyle (which is a dressage test set to music) with one of her other students. Kaswyn heard the music too, and was a little more perky than usual. He's done a few freestyles and he always gets really jazzed about the music.

When we entered the arena I saw that cones had been set up to mark the correct size for a regulation show arena because the arena itself is a little bigger than the competition area. Usually it's not a big deal to ride in a larger arena but when you are trying to choreograph a ride to music you really need to know how long it's going to take you to get from point A to piont B, so arena size is important.

As I tightened Kaswyn's girth, he started snorting a bit and was a little antsy. I walked him to the mounting block, and as soon as I got on he took off doing this really fast walk. He then started snorting and doing little spooks here and there. My trainer and her other student were discussing their session and both stopped to watch my horse be a big goof. A horse sighed in his stall - Kaswyn jumped. The cat ran through the arena - Kaswyn spooked. All these things usually would not have had any effect on him, but the cool temperature, music, and cones had him all fired up.

Then we started to trot. He didn't give me any funny business, but instead gave me the best trot I have felt out of him in years. Big, bold, reaching, energetic strides. Even the shoulder-in was pretty damned good. My trainer said how good he looked, and also said "He looks like he has Nikes on today." The canter work was equally as good, with lots of jump.

It was a fabulous ride. Now I'm hoping he can have some of that energy throughout this winter and can train with that much enthusiasm. We'll make so much headway.