Journaled 22nd January, 2001.

Hi Christie and Matthew,
I've just come up from the dairy. Flash has had his tea and is happily
demolishing his hay now. He is drinking well and seems nice and relaxed. His
legs seem fine and I have just sprayed them again. He doesn't seem in any
way sore on his back legs.

I decided that since he was so laid back about having the saddle on this
morning that I would lunge him in it this afternoon, so I saddled and
bridled him. He accepted both saddle and bridle with equanimity. He opened
his mouth willingly to accept the bridle and put his head down a little to
help me reach his head. :-)

He lunged very nicely. Just for a short period (ten minutes) in walk and
trot, although he did offer me canter once. I worked mainly on getting him
understanding my commands, making transitions and making sure he had a good
experience, while maintaining discipline (ie not letting him trot when he
felt like it). When he trotted, I asked him to walk with my voice and he did
each time, immediately. He is falling in on the circle to the right
signifigantly more than to the left, but that's to be expected. He
understood my commands and was very happy to trot for me. He became
straighter as the session progressed, but I didn't want to push him too hard
on his first work session. He seemed to enjoy having a trot. Several times
he offered to pace, usually in walk/trot transitions, but a firm "TROT"
command took him straight into his lovely rhythmic trot.

He certainly looks lovely under saddle. I think rather like a "scaled" down
Selle Fancais (WB). His paces are big, bold and active and he is alert but
calm and attentive. I like him very much.

After lunging him I unsaddled him and got a milk crate and got up on it
beside him a few times (from both sides), then I leaned a little weight on
his back. I also put my arm over to the other side and patted him and made
sure he could see the arm on his other side. He was totally unconcerned, but
did insist on checking out the milk crate to make sure that it didn't have
food in it!

I'm pleased with his progress.

Cheers,
Lisa

	- Lisa W