amywink November 16th, 2009
Yesterday I fell even more deeply in love with my horse. For our fifth anniversary, we headed over to Agarita Ranch for our second outing and Will was perfect. Absolutely Perfect. It was astounding and glorious.
The extremely foggy morning eventually cleared by 10:30 and we had partly cloudy skies and mid-seventies for temps. The fog did provide a lovely scene before we departed. As the horses walked out of the pastures for their breakfast, each materialized slowly from dark shape to individual body: Windy, Popeye, and Miss B, moseying up for breakfast. Will was no where to be seen. As the herd got closer, we called and called, and then we heard Will coming. Head up, tail out, he galloped out of the fog, passing everyone else to race to his feeding pen. It was a scene for a movie and the perfect start to our day together.
We arrived at Agarita Ranch about 11 and unloaded. Will walked off the trailer like an old pro. He looked around, relaxed and quiet. He quietly stood tied to the trailer while we harnessed, walked quietly to his carriage for hitching, stood quietly while we waited for Windy and Lisa to hook, and walked off calmly off for the start of our drive. 180 degrees from our last outing. He stood so well, Mary was able to take several photos before we started and get on and sit down without Will moving at all. He didn’t even raise his head when Mary climbed on. This was the first time, he’d remained stock still for everything. As Mary said, all our work together had paid off.
As I intended, we started our work in the dressage arena, where we tried out some of the exercises I’d copied from Heike Bean’s book. Since Agarita’s dressage arena is full sized (40×80), we had more room to move correctly. I wanted to try the figure 8 recommended for Losgelassenheit since I had not executed it correctly when we worked the previous day, turning too tightly in the corners. This time, we did the figure correctly and Will did much better (of course) because I didn’t get it wrong–my apologies, Will. We also tried the exercise recommended for Anlehnung, driving down the center line with 20 meter half circle turns, and that went very smoothly as well. Will maintained excellent rhythm (Takt) the entire time, working steadily at the trot. For our biggest challenge, I tried a three loop serpentine across the arena at the trot and Will responded admirably.
Our biggest challenge remains the full circle, which I attempted again. I seem to do fine on half the circle, but lose it somewhere on the other half–more practice is the only solution. I also think I may need to try the circle earlier in our work, before my hands get too tired for the correct commands and contact necessary for that maneuver. Practice, Practice, Practice.
All of that was quite a workout for both Will and I so we left the arena and headed out for a nice cooling walk on the trails. Will headed out willingly, never batted an eye, barely looked around, and never called to Windy. In fact, he wanted to be “in front” and walked too swiftly to be in second place! We walked through the mesquite thicket–with an eye open for the flock of turkeys we’d seen on arriving: 
Thankfully, they did not appear. I was not exactly sure Will remain composed if we came upon these very large birds along the trail.
Instead, it was a lovely, lovely stroll through the brush and trees. Will behaved perfectly and only sent out a call to his buddy Ben when we got in sight of the barn. It was a perfect drive.
Here are a few shots of Will standing. He was so good, Mary was able to get on an off the carriage many times without any trouble at all. So, we have any photos of Good Will Standing at Agarita Ranch.
