Today was cold & gloomy, but not windy, so Tim suggested we ride over to the Smith Lake, which I haven't been to before, now that we got our wildlife stamp to allow us to use that area. On the way, we rode past the horses in the pasture across the street.  Brego was curious & distracted by them and a bit animated, but I kept him going straight and paying attention to me more than them, and he soon calmed down.  Later there were cows ahead, and at one point Strider jumped into the street quickly.  Brego was fine, but it put me on edge a bit, remembering how he'd slipped on the slick street last Monday.  I didn't want him to spook then slip on the street and freak himself out.  When we got closer to one of the cows, Tim had Strider go up to the cow & run him off.  The cow didn't really bother Brego, even when it ran towards us.  As we turned down by the lake and started going downhill, Brego started going faster.  He really wasn't out of control, but I was edgy with him going faster.  I don't know why these little things bother me so much.  I picture myself being nice and relaxed while I ride my horse, but so often I'm not.  I just have to keep remembering to relax.

Tim suggested we gait from time to time, and it's fun, but hard to get Brego to gait consistently. He speeds up and slows down and goes from bouncy to smooth to bouncy.  We will need to keep working on that.  It was cold, so we didn't stay out too long.  When we got back, Tim worked with Brego a bit on speed control, to get him to keep his speed up when circling.  Tim is so good with the horses--he always seems to know just what to do.  I'm jealous. ;)  Then we worked on backing him up with the hand on his nose, and got him to touch his tail with his nose.

I've gotta laugh.  On an early draft of a post I said something about getting Brego to back up by putting my hand on MY nose.  We've been laughing about that ever since.  Sometimes I will put my finger to my nose and say, "Back up, Brego."  It doesn't work, but it's funny.  I guess you had to have been there.  One of these days I'll teach him to back up when I put my finger on my nose!