Brennan and Karen work their sox off!

Today I took Brennan and Karen down to Becky's wonderful all-weather arena for a ride. My surface is pretty much out now that we have had a bit of rain - too much to expect a green baby to work on and Becky is kind enough to let us use the arena when she is not using it. Having access to that surface is an absolute Godsend!

Brennan did some really fantastic work today and tried his little heart out - This pony learns SO fast and tries so hard! I know I probably sound like a broken record but he has such a great brain, I am amazed by him. I am also HUGELY grateful to Karen for riding him like she does. Brennan and I are bloody lucky to have her as a jockey as her experience really is invaluable.

Hopefully Karen will forgive me for the photos of her minus her gaiters (they were left in her car which was elsewhere) but I think they both look so great, I just want to show them off to everyone!

Look at me stretch!

Handsome boy

Big pats, an extra big dinner and a night out of the weather for the wee Bman today. Tomorrow they have a lesson - bring it!

Team Brennan's second lesson with Becky

Brennan really had his brain in gear today and was a super pony. I am not sure who was happier with him; Me, Karen or Becky!

Finished his clipping after lunch so he is now sporting a very clean cut of total nakedness except for his legs and head - the racing stripes just weren't working for Karen and he was still getting very hot so it made sense to just whip it all off. We got up behind the ears today too, just took a little persuasion and he worked out it was not going to chop his ears off and let Karen go for it.

He has picked up his stretching lesson really quickly and I am so pleased to see he is actually now willing to stretch down at walk and trot - A HUGE improvement. His trainability is really starting to show. He's going to be a super breed ambassador and I just get more and more excited about this journey we are taking with every step we take.

Fluffy face

Streeeetch

This canter rocks!

Going places baby!

Rawr!

Looking very smart

Zoom zoom

More stretch

More goin' places

Love

Racing Stripes

Today Brennan had his first date with the clippers. Initially we had hoped to use Karen's lovely quiet cordless Laube set but for some reason the new blades would not seat into the handpiece so we had to go to plan two and use her other set which are quite a bit noisier. Brennan was very good although decided, when the clippers got too close to his ears, that he did not really like that and would like to exit stage left, please. No drama tho, we got pretty much the rest of him done and will address the final touches tomorrow!

Once clipped, we whizzed over to Becky's so he could have a workout in her arena. Wires must have been crossed somewhere along the line because another float with a pony on board turned into her driveway literally in front of us. Pony was a mare too, of course! Anyway, we decided it would be good for him to have to 'share' his sandpit and, after explaining to other people that he was a stallion, we set forth and tacked up and took him down to the arena.

Karen said he was quite hard work today - I think he was pretty tired after a couple of hours standing in the shed concentrating on ensuring that the clippers did not eat him alive. He still did some nice work so all was not lost. He and Karen have a lesson tomorrow afternoon so hopefully they will have a great session.

Apparently, now that Karen has seen the photos, we will be removing the rest of his body hair tomorrow so, sorry Brennan, you are going to be a very naked pony!!