Not even Evil Kanevil practices showmanship like this!

Last night was our first perfunctory ride.  Waning daylight only afforded me about 10 minutes of riding time once I had groomed, tacked, and lunged him.  I neglected to bring the lunge whip out, so there was no cantering on the lunge line, and a diminishing amount of trotting as he dispensed with his high jinks.  He was good for mounting and dismounting and walked off on cue.  Overall he was very good, though tended to be distracted looking around at his surroundings.  We tried just a bit of trot and it went fine.  We had our first spook at a bird fleeing from the neighbor's pine tree.  He jumped with all four feet, but didn't actually go anywhere.  If a horse has to spook, that's a better way to do it from a rider's perspective.  It looks like we have some work ahead of us on focusing, working in a frame, and steering off leg cues. 

One of my tasks for today was to burn the scrap pile that's been mounding up.  Never one to pass up a learning opportunity, I figured that fire would be another excellent desensitizing tool for Larry.  Naturally, he balked at first and nearly stepped on me trying to scoot away, but by the end of our session, we were walking calmly around the fire and practicing showmanship maneuvers with the smoke wafting around us.  The more we work together through varied experiences and learn to trust one another, the better we'll function as a team.  And now if we're ever asked to do a showmanship pattern in the middle of a wild fire, we'll be ready.  lol