Kota - Last ride

It is really hard to imagine that Kota has been here for a full 30 days.  Or that April is about over though I knew April would fly by with as busy as it was supposed to be.  I was reading my previous post looking at all Kota has accomplished in the short time here and it makes me proud.  He has a good foundation to bring him through life and I am looking forward to see how things play out for him.

For our last ride I kept things simple.  I worked on groundwork again to make sure he was nice and sharp for when he goes home.  Move haunches, move shoulders, back, forward, halt, the meaning of whoa.  He had almost forgotten some of the basics and didn't immediately move when I asked for a command so I am glad I took the time to review.   He was a good boy and after about 10 mins I hopped on.  Kota stayed stock still for mounting and we spent most of the ride at a walk and trot.  We worked on half passes some more, practiced the turn on the haunches, forehand, side pass and back.  We played with the trot and keeping it nice and slow with both big and small circles and changes of direction.  We even played with a small jump, having him walk over a 15 inch crossrail and even trotting over it.  Though admittedly there wasn't a trot over the crossrail, he trotted up to it, slowed to a walk, stepped over it and trotted off.  I will give him props for not refusing or trying to duck out, he just went over it like he had been doing it the whole time.  It was a nice ride to finish our month together.

Kota will be leaving this afternoon and I will have 2 days of only having my critters here before the new boarder comes.  I shall thoroughly enjoy these next two days of only 3 stalls to clean, especially since Kota is far from a good stall keeper.  Hopefully this new gelding will be a better stall keeper, the owner says he is rarely in a stall now so she can't say how he is.  It shall be a surprise!