Lee goes for a ride

Since Bentley can't do any more than a walk right now, last night was the perfect opportunity for Lee to get up and get a feel for him.  But let me back up a bit, to a few weeks ago when Lee finished his last lesson at Stepping Stones.

That's Lee riding Beau on a course of trot poles.  Not bad for only 6 lessons!  He is a natural.

Now back to last night. 

I had to get on Bentley first to prove that he wasn't going to be silly and try and run off with Lee.  After only a few laps of the ring, Lee was convinced and got up.  Bentley was so good while Lee mounted and accidentally kicked him on the rump.  Usually Bentley tries to walk off, but he must have understood that Lee was going to need some help.  Testing testing... steering, check... brakes, check... gas pedal, woah that's touchy!  Few strides of gimpy trot there.  Eventually Lee figured out exactly how much (or little) Bentley needs to get his focus back without asking him to trot.

I gave the option to learn more advanced "stuff" at the walk, or go for a walk on the trail and Lee chose trail.  The moment they stepped out of the ring, Bentley hurled his nose forward, reins flew out of Lee's hands and the mouth was FULL of grass.  Talk about taking advantage of a new rider!  A bit of struggling later, and Lee could see the "look" in Bentley's eye and easily prevented future disagreements.

We ran into Heather and Mel in the plateau. 

Bentley had shown quite a bit of ouchie at the walk doing hills, but was moving better on the flat.  Every so often he would make a misstep at the walk in the plateau but not the sandring.  This leads me to believe he has a bruise or soreness in his soles or possibly frog even though he did not react to any of the pain testing the farrier did.  Picking his feet out after, he certainly seemed sore in the left foot on the left side of the frog.  Perhaps easy boots will help this?  I am not going to purchase any just yet, I was intending on purchasing them eventually, but its not quite in the budget right now.  I will let him recover and see if we have any more troubles with this.

Regardless, the boys had a good walk.

We guess Lee rode about a mile, and after that Lee can be quoted saying "Only 99 more in a row to go"  Thats right, he just committed to riding a 100 mile ride.  No turning back now.