I had the morning free today, got up early and went out to the barn. Sunny, light breeze, and the whole world smelled brand new and squeaky clean after yesterday's rain :)
Barokko was drinking at the lake when I got to the pasture - I was hoping to catch him sleeping ;)
I groomed him while he ate his breakfast, and undid his maintenance braids - I wanted to check if the hair had gotten wet inside the wraps (it hadn't).
I put in a quick French braid to keep the mane out of the way and then tacked up. I put on the dressage saddle for the first time in several weeks, and the cavesson with reins in the side rings.
I started out by warming him up in-hand, and then hopped on. Riding with the cavesson was really wierd, the sensation at the other end of the reins is completely different from a bit. I spent some time just trying out his reactions, and pretty quickly he relaxed and stretched FDO into my hand. For the first time ever I felt like Barokko had a long neck! :-O
Interestingly, he didn't invert a single time, didn't toss his head once. I wasn't able to keep him "on the bit" 100% of the time, but his evasions were much smaller than usual. I hope the arena has dried up enough tomorrow that I can try trotting/cantering (too slippery today).
After the ride I re-braided his mane, and lead him back to the pasture.
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