I say "surprisingly" because the temps dropped dramatically overnight and Kramer was in his round pen as the cool wind blew and swirled leaves and grass all around.
He was grateful I'd arrived to let him out and give him some attention. I could tell that he wasn't as frisky as I expected.
I lunged him for a while and he enjoyed stretching his long legs, but wasn't overly playful. I decided to get on him and ride in the arena with Paul's ex-racehorse that was running on the end of his lunge line and Donna's horse who was doing "airs above the ground" on his lunge line. Oh well, things you might see at a horse show, right?
We did a lot of walking and bending and canting the hips and shoulder in, etc. Once the frenzy from the other horses settled down, we began trotting and did a lot of that. We trotted circles, figure 8's, over poles....then we did a posting trot. Lots of that and ol' Kramer was Kramalicious! Sure, his head popped up now and then or his ears would go back when Manhatten (Donna's horse)had a few more bucks left, but he wasn't allowed (nor was I!)to look or listen. We concentrated on our task at hand. Kramer was very warmed up and by this time, the arena was cleared when I decide to canter. Now bear in mind that the wind is blowing the loose metal roof on the hay barn, the blankets are blowing outside the stalls, the dressage letters are bumping and blowing and the dirt blows by like a wave on the beach(well, almost). But canter we did! Kramer put his head down a couple of times, but all I had to do was hold his head up and he was fine. He did a very nice canter both ways and I think we both felt great after that ride. Of course, I had to practice some shwmnshp and he did pretty well. I just have to remember to lead with my shoulder, which I did most of the time. He got extra carrots in his feed bucket before I left. Oh! I also put a sheet on him-let's see if it's still on him by tomorrow!
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