A great day in Wisconsin

We enjoyed a rather pleasant day in Wisconsin today. The temperatures were in the 20s, which is pretty balmy compared to what we experienced last week! I rode Josie today, which is the first time in about one week. I had Dave come out to the barn so that we could take our "holiday" photo. Little did he know.....I planned on getting a picture with him ON a horse! It worked out well, and we even managed to get the dog in a few pictures.
The interesting thing was that when I got on Josie outside, she went from a reasonably confident horse to a very insecure one. HOW interesting! My leadership must not be as strong when I am on her back (which I think I knew already...) In novel situations (outside in the snow in this case), she loses her confidence in me and reverts back to being right brain. MY challenge is figuring out how to work things out while still on her back. I need to learn to take back the leadership role without getting off her back. That will be something to ponder this week. All in all though, it was a ton of fun to ride around in the snow!
After taking photos outside, we then moved into the arena and played in there. We played on the 45 foot line, which was fun. I have been making a program out of figure eights, and weaves, and touch it the past week. She is really recognizing the patterns, which is fun because I can start adding challenges to what I ask (longer distances, faster speeds, etc.). I saddled her up, and Kari and I rode for a short while in the indoor arena. Kari and Vegas went over some small jumps, which was very exciting! Vegas is such a good little jumper! Josie and I tried to follow suit, but the jumps were not very big, so she insisted on just trotting over them....we got a little 'hop' on one circuit, so I was happy with that. We'll try a bigger jump next time!

So the plan for this week is:
1. Vaccinate the horses tomorrow
2. Farrier on Tuesday
3. Continue to work on figure eights, weave, touch it--work on speed, distance, quality!
4. Question box pattern while riding
5. Work on getting our "go" to equal our "whoa" Our "whoa" rocks right now! Now I just need snappier departs at all gaits! We will do it!

That's probably enough for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later!