Snowy Evening with Dewey

Dewey and I braved the cold and snow and made our way to the covered arena this afternoon.  I'm so grateful to have an area with awesome footing for when the weather doesn't want to cooperate with my training schedule!

First I took his blanket off, much to his chagrin.  I gave him a quick brushing, tacked him up, and on our way to the arena I tried to make him stand for some photos in the snow.  He told me that was ridiculous, and he is a three year old TB who has not been out to play for DAYS, and how could I possibly expect him to stand nicely for photos?  Nevertheless, he cooperated and I got some cute shots.

Then we made our way down the hill to the arena and we lunged a bit.  He had to frolic at the beginning as he always does, then he settled to work thinking about the series of poles I had set up for him. 

Videos of him working his young horse brain to organize ALL FOUR of his feet can be seen here (you may want to turn down your speakers since Miles the border collie is cheering for Dewey in the background):
Walking:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_-ofYa5cJw
Trotting:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HemICg_-cLI
Try at Canter:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy9-C-zuV7E

Then we had to take a break to go over and see what Mahzi the dog was doing in the corner.  She is convinced that there are rabbits hiding under a pallet at the side of the arena, so Dewey went over to inspect.  Dewey is great with the dogs and Mahzi has helped him overcome some learning situations so he's always eager to lend a hand with whatever her current project is.

Lastly we played with the barrels a little bit.  The first time I introduced the barrels to Dewey he mistook them for a starting gate and bolted through them.  That was in December, but even though we are two months later he remembered that he was only required to walk through.  I got him on video going both directions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX9PyaC8uVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2GSpMCfuU

I finished up my evening by feeding the horses and topping off water tanks.  It was cold, but a beautiful sunset.