Boxing Kai

Kai wasn't in Alabama yet. Apparently everything's done from Anna's end, now she's just waiting on the haulers to call and say they're picking him up. Since that wasn't likely to be at 6:30 am on Saturday, I got to ride him again.

Today Anna made a box out of poles on X.

The first lesson was to walk into this box...

And stop, within the box. Which actually turned out to be quite easy, as Kai is always quite eager to please with his stopping.

Since that went well, we got try the next exercise. We were supposed to trot into the box, slow to a walk within the box, and trot out of the box. I think I was concentrating too much on actually getting at least a stride of walk, as it turns out, this was supposed to be my introduction to the half halt. I don't think the actual walk was important, just that stage right when the horse is going back to walk, as soon as I got that, I should have been trotting again.

And here's Gretsky being ridden by the lady who rides him while I ride Kai. I learned something from her when she walked past us when I was grooming Kai to get him ready. She often has a small treat for him in the morning, and today that treat was a piece of watermelon rind. I had no idea horses liked watermelon!