SnowBunnies

I'm glad that I can approach my resting pony without the stomach dropping fear of "omg why is he laying down?!"  I know him, I know his napping times and this was just one of them. It took a while for me to get here..to let go of fear a bit.  

It had snowed a lot the night before with high winds and low temps so I had blanketed him. He was warm and happy to shed his rug and roll in the snow

We rode a bareback hack. The pasture was literally too pretty to ride in, so I left it alone and we went for a ride down the road

I mean, sometimes, you just can't beat nature or mess it up

We had such powdery snow to plow through, what a good work out for Laz and Mason

 Playing in a side field along the road, where Laz was pawing at the snow threatening to roll

I had to steer him past it as he full on ROLLED with me in the water only last month...I didn't want to test his 'want' again

 Look at how much snow we have already, it's beautiful

 Bare toes

 Relaxing

"I iz sleepin nows..you go homez"

On Saturday, I took a bunch of videos of our ground work for an online lesson I'll have with my Parelli trainer coming up this week. SO excited! For $25 she helps with any 'issues' or sticky spots and we have one going on.

It's minor but I want to nip it in the bud before it escalates  Laz is tossing his head and doing this physical 'thing'..it's not a buck, it's not a crow hop, it's like snaking his head side to side, tossing out his front legs, forward and semi crow hopping/baby threatening bucks.

At any rate, he did it on the trails this past Fall, and lately in our winter work so, I want/need help with it. Looking forward to what she has to say :)

Sunday, I got video of us riding, and dealing with said situation

But despite the tiny misbehaving moments caught on our youtube, Laz was such a good boy...

 We road rode (lol!) and played in the thick soft snow

I used our treeless and need to take the stirrups down a couple of notches-yipes

 Working through some deeper snow/brush aka making a good trail pony :)

 Some trot work (girl, keep you head UP)

 Some stills from our ride

Dressage anyone?! ;)

In all seriousness, he is acting very coltish and I want to know how to handle this. 

It reads as soooo small on video but under saddle it feels big and STRONG

I just want to know 'why?'

Do I channel it? Do I push through? Do I stop him? etc etc...we'll see after we skype to discuss 

The side tossing of his head side to side, in a bareback situation makes it VERY hard to stay on

Being he did this a lot more on our rides, I want to contain/change it now before it turns into a nasty habit.

Speaking of coltish, doesn't Laz look like a 3 yr old below?! 

He's a handsome 11 yrs old :)

Another video still and maybe a favorite photo... what a handsome boy

Speaking of handsome, what better view than your man riding your fuzzy horse

Billy is 6'3" for size comparison, he makes Laz look like a pony. We just walked around and I stuck by Laz's head as Billy got to enjoy 'the feeling' of Laz walking

So cute :) 

You have to appreciate a non horsey hubbie willing to come out to the barn to video tape while he misses football.  

The Lions suck anyway, right??? ;)

 Laz eating his warm mash of hay cubes, beet pulp, spirulina and chia seed

 Not one calorie was burned ;)