The Lead Fairy

I am thoroughly convinced that sometime in the very recent past Johnny must have had a run in with the Lead Fairy of horses. Each day he continues to amaze me even more with his sudden understanding of his canter leads. Not only is he picking them up on the ground and landing them off jumps, but today I turned him to the right towards a 2'3" jump and he immediately picked up his right lead canter and hopped right over it in perfect rhythm and balance and even landed the lead again on the back side.

Today we also did our first ever lead change (or at least, half a lead change!) Johnny landed off a jump, which I was planning on turning left after, but clearly he had different ideas and he landed with his legs cross cantering to the right, so naturally he ducked right and took off in an awkward canter. Just for kicks, I let him keep going and turned back across the field diagonally, pushing the canter out more and wondering if he might fix his legs. We were almost across the diagonal when I felt him bunch up underneath me and BAM he swapped behind so that he was on the correct lead to turn the corner! WOO HOO!!

Dear Lead Fairy: Please do not abandoned my silly gelding. I love it when you and him work together ;)

In other news, Emmy's leg has been looking pretty good. I rode her tonight and hopped her over a TINY little cross rail just to see how she would do. She was excellent and afterward I let her stand for 20 minutes in ice. When I took the ice off there was almost NO SWELLING at all in her leg, which is a great sign! I plan on checking it in the morning before work to see how it's looking :)

Peace.Love.Ponies.