The Riding/Training - Elvis Throws a Shoe and Gets a Lesson

Elvis Throws a Shoe and Gets a Lesson

Before I get into the story about Elvis, I just want to say what a JOY a good warm pair of socks is this time of year!  My daughter-in-law knitted these for me a couple of years ago and they changed my life.  Literally.  Along with a good pair of "Ice Riders".  They are made of some ridiculously expensive yarn that has silk and angora and I don't know what else in it.  They are dreamily soft and extremely warm.  Over a thin pair of socks and inside my Ice Riders - I become oblivious to the kind of cold that I used to dread and which drove me inside between chores.  I simply had to sing their praises before moving on.

Elvis threw a shoe sometime last weekend, and I agreed to meet the farrier at a friend's barn in Evergreen so he didn't have to come all the way out here for just one shoe.  My back has been pretty bad and I was not planning to ride until after I had some acupuncture done on Tuesday.  But with the opportunity to ride and have  lesson in an indoor arena, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try riding on Monday.  Elvis was pretty wound up about being in an indoor, and about snow falling off the roof, and about the P.A. system, and about the trailer ride, and my back was still pretty bad, so we had a walking lesson.  And it turned out really well.

As I said, Elvis had a lot on his mind and a lot of new things to think about, so I expected him to be pretty distracted and the lesson to be sort of a throw-away. But it wasn't.  For the first time ever, he actually started to accept some steady contact.  And for the first time ever, he seemed to begin to understand about how a frame is supposed to work.  It was wonderful and so unexpected.   It seemed like a little light bulb went on in his brain.  I hope we can turn it on again the next time we school.  We worked on being straight and some leg yields and haunches in.  He was super!

I am going to try him in Flicka's eggbutt snaffle next time.