The snow has melted and the ground has thawed! Of course that makes for some awfully muddy ground... but that hasn't stopped us from hacking through the muck to work our boys. We seemed to have gotten off track for a few days almost immediately after getting back on track. That definately won't happen again. It's like starting from scratch again!

Jay-R sure has grown up recently, or maybe I've just begun to notice it. He basically falls asleep everytime he's in the cross-ties and walks across the road, through the field and up the driveway like he's been doing this his entire life. Luckily once we get to the arena he doesn't mind going right to work!

My goal had been to get him moving nice and forward and round. Now that we've been there for a bit, it's time to get put back together. I have to remember that he needs strong aids all around to convince him that I mean business. Hopefully my strength is beginning to come back so I will become quieter and help him out more. Time to do a ton of work without stirrups!!

Today during our ride we took a little break to hop over a couple of crossrails. He went right over them with no hesitation, even the scary striped one that almost bit him last week! Tomorrow we are going to head over decked out in our jumping gear and play hunter pony for the day. His mane got pulled today (poor Jay was NOT happy about this) and tomorrow his face will get clipped and his tail banged.

Good thing he will look the part of a good dressage horse because it's still a few weeks before I get my new non-holey boots and half chaps!