Ready for spring!

Tuesday I had the opportunity to leg up Argorn. His friend in the stall is a 3 y/o RPSI stallion named Zeitgeist (coolest name ever). Argorn is a teen Oldenburg gelding that schools/showed 4th level. Unfortunately his new owners (my horse trainer used to own him as a lesson horse) aren't out very often and I'm always more than happy to get in rides on as many different horses as possible. Hes been out of work since probably last summer so I was happy to get him out. 

He is a notoriously lazy horse to ride (which is great for kids learning or his new owner a 13 y/o beginner rider). We weren't sure if he was going to be "fresh" because of so much time off so opted to ride without spurs (big mistake). He has the mindset that he will not work unless you know what you are doing and make him work. The really neat thing about riding him is that for some reason I can really feel each of his legs move independently which helps me understand biomechanics as a rider.

We did a lot of walking working on getting him to stretch into the contact and step under himself again. I had to pony kick this guy to get him to trot and just stayed off his back to let his back warm up. When he is this out of shape he really doesn't want to work and I got very winded trying to keep him going. After one series of trot work I nearly puked from trying to get him to keep trotting. He had a few moments of auto-pilot and stretched nice. I could tell he enjoyed being out again. 

I'm really excited to keep riding him more because he really teaches me a lot as a rider. He has so many buttons and is so fine tuned you have to be very accurate with your aids. Just need to get him back in shape so I don't get winded as fast (and realistically me get back in shape as well!).