Clinic with Theo

Good Morning Curly Riders! 

   Last weekend I once again had the privilege of riding in one of Larry Whitesells clinics.  He is a gaited horse trainer but studies Classical Dressage and uses it in his methods for gaited horses.  He teaches how to ride your horse and keep it in balance which will cause relaxation.  Well last year I took Abby and although I learned allot the entire time I thought this would be so cool to learn with Theo.  So I brought my non gaited horse to a gaited horse clinic and it was a huge success! 
    The first few days Theo wasn't drinking much water but didn't show any other signs of being uncomfortable.  I know he has issues with ulcers so I made sure he was eating his medicine and by the last two days he was drinking only out of one of the buckets but getting enough.  Just in the last month that I've been getting him out to new places he has really started to settle in quicker.
   We learned some ground work that will help him strengthen his hind end and teach him to move in a balanced position by doing a shoulder in on a circle.  Theo caught on so quick Larry showed us the more advanced way of asking for a straight should in from the ground.  This confused Theo alittle but Larry said to play with it at home slowly so that's what we did the other night.  I got him to take a few really nice steps before he walked out of it.
 All in all I'm really excited to continue working on this stuff and I might sneak down to Tennessee where they are located at to take a lesson with Jennifer (his partner in training) while I'm on my family vacation in Kentucky.

Abby has had some relaxing time off but I'm putting her through the steps now as well.  Last night we found out she did not get bred on our first attempt so we will be trying again at the end of this month.  I got some photos taken of her at the Horse fair that I'll try to post in a few days. 

At the end of May I'll be attending a 2 day Brad Hall clinic with Theo and then it's my big Birthday camping trip.  Not sure on the details but I have Friday-Monday off so it's going to be relaxing!