My Lesson and Miscellaneous Stuff

I had my lesson again on Tuesday. Toby is doing well but we both have a ways to go and practice, practice, practice. We rode in the outdoor arena which is much bigger with better footing than the indoor. It was a little chilly so Toby needed more time to warm up and get going. You know when a horse is relaxed in the back and warmed up when their tail gently swings side to side as you trot along.

We are still working on building up his back muscles and doing a ton of trot work and keeping him straight on the straight aways and properly bent on the turns. Not as easy as it sounds. But his frame is better and he's utilizing his hind end much better than he ever has. So progress is being made!

Afterwards I went over to my friends house to watch her and her daughter's lessons. I also worked on portrait shots using their horses as models:



Lilly


Thunder


Bolder
And then I shot some photos of Betsy's dogs, a lab mix and a young female Great Dane:




Here is a link to view all the photos in a slideshow. The first seven photos were from yesterday.

And since I can't help myself, I'm mulling over another horse who was offered for sale to me. He's one of the horses the head outrider uses in his work at Hawthorne. I had been gushing over him during the Illinois Derby Day. I was disappointed he was shipped down to his owner's farm for some R&R and wasn't around when I was there this past weekend. He's a retired racehorse and now has the duty of catching loose horses when the rider is up ended in a race. He's the ultimate "been there/done that" horse and would be a ton of fun to work with. So what do you guys think of him?