Riding In The Snow!

Today I had such a fun time with Solo! We played online with some 12 foot circles, working on more flexion and canter-to-walk transitions. First, because he's becoming more LBI everyday (YAY!), I have to work on motivation now instead of confidence. So first we started really slow..I mean like a snail's pace slow. Things like how little can I do to have you back up, and back through the cones, walk REALLY s....l.....o.....w on circle game. Boy was he interested! Then I asked him to trot and he went with the expression of "FINALLY!" After that, we did some long-lining on a figure 8. This has been one of the hardest things for him to grasp, and for me too! For him, I think, because I am behind and not in front of him leading the way, so he gets a little unconfident. But yesterday, he did really well! After that we worked on drawing backwards with turns, and he seemed to really like that! I really wanted to ride, so I went in the barn and saddled up. My saddle fit better yesterday than most days...YAY for muscle growth! Then as I'm fidgeting with my freezing cold bit, trying to warm it up, Solo pretty much wrapped himself around me trying to get that bit in his mouth! SCORE! Finally when I got it warm up, I touched it to his lips and he sucked it right in. I led him back out into our little snow trampled area of about 40 square feet and got on. Well obviously, I couldn't really work on things with speed, so it was the perfect opportunity to work on the little things that had escaped my mind when we didn't have snow. First, we worked on making our halt-to-walk transitions as invisible as possible, and BOY were they invisible! All I had to do was pick up my energy and he was off! Next we did some point-to-point with cones at the trot. After he was doing really well with that, I collected my reins and we did some Finesse. It was one of our best yet! I would go from cone to cone and we would turn a small circle around each cone. Instead of using my outside leg to turn him, I would use my inside leg and an indirect rein, so he would arc his body around each cone. He was b-e-a-utiful!! After that, I was done! I had to be..he was amazing and I needed to stop at a high point.
The best part about this whole thing was that he never once had his ears back!!!