This week we’ve been super busy preparing for a big clinic we host semi-annually at the farm for the National Mounted Police Services. It’s a super cool confidence building and de-spooking clinic but it requires a lot of prep work on our end as we usually have anywhere between 5-15 horses coming in and staying for the weekend.

Of course this time around we’ve got 15 horses coming in for the weekend so we’re already on the heavier end of preparations, meaning that working my own horse isn’t as much of a priority as getting ready for the clinic is.

That’s life! It happens. But between clinic prep we’ve had time for two other short sessions that were punctuated with successful rides for 15-20 minutes each after a lunging session of about the same length (if not a little shorter this week).

Our first ride this week was our first solo ride EVER! By that I mean I didn’t make my fiancee hop on and make sure he wasn’t going to kill me before I got on. Indy was so calm, cool, and collected that after lunging for our usual few minutes I put on his bridle, walked over to the mounting block and hopped on. Off we walked. OH what a beautiful thing.

So beautiful in fact that we decided to repeat the process the following night in our weekly group lesson. Even around the other horses Indy was pretty steady. He spooked a few times over VERY scary things like the big green ball and the water wheel. We also rode our first time at night so I was a bit more forgiving of his mental lapses because you know… everything’s scarier in the dark.

If I’ve noticed anything it’s that this guy is incredibly smart… and without the bad behaviors that someone else has created, everything is a relatively fresh start.

Pretty nifty, I’ll tell you. Pretty. Nifty.