Terrific Tuesday...ok, maybe not terrific, but good nonetheless!

Ha!  Made you look!  I knew I'd get your attention by putting up this sweet picture of little "J". 
I made it out to Wildwood around 7:30 this morning in order to beat the intense heat that was forecast for later today.  Kramer was ready to come out & play.  But he needed a few bites of grass first, of course.
I groomed him & tacked him up and then lunged him but only for about 10 mins.  When I got on him, I first walked the arena a couple of times before asking for a trot.  We trotted for some time and I purposefully draped my reins for the most part.  He didn't always have a flat topline, but he would keep it lower when my legs were on him.  That's the hard part-keeping my legs on him!
I asked for the canter from trots and/or the walk and he willingly took the correct lead; the only time he didn't was when I asked for it at the wrong time.  His head was a bit high and I tried too hard in asking for the departure.
His canter was really, really nice.  He is so much more at ease with the looser rein.  I'm liking this a lot!  About mid-way in our ride, 3 very novice riders joined in and gave K-face something to look at.  It was good for him to know that he doesn't control the situation, he has to listen to his rider at all times.  After a bit, he didn't care about them and when we all (they joined us during a "time-out")were standing by the rail catching a breeze, K semi-dozed.
After our ride, he got the usual spa treatment.  I gave him his snack & he ate most of his alfalfa:

Since there's a nice breeze blowing today & Kramer has a huge shade tree in his paddock, I decided to turn him back out until he's brought in around 3pm.  We were finished up by 10:30 and I knew he'd prefer being out as opposed to being in a stall all day.

He rolled in a nice, soft spot of dirt then got a good long drink & finally munched on his unfinished morning hay.  A very content horse.