sunshine for days

In the midst of the political and virus divide, there is one thing every Wisconsinite can agree on ~ our early November weather has been incredibly beautiful!! A week well spent soaking up sunshine for days, brightens up everything. Especially when out of the norm.

The great weather this past week inspired us to spend more time outside and for Brad to work with Koda again. Because Koda needs it, and I need it. All horses minds change when you give them things to think about, and his definitely settles.
 

It has been a while since any of our horses were asked to do much of anything outside of behaving during turnout & farrier visits. The earlier days Brad spent with Koda was evident. He is still acting up a bit when asked to move out on the lunge line, but my sassy horse is remembering what is being asked of him. Much faster.

On Monday Brad lunged him in the arena...

Then off to the woods we went for a walk-a-bout. This time all four of us. Brad with Koda in hand, Tank and I. Huge difference. Koda took the bottom of the pasture walk in stride. On the last attempt, he almost came apart rounding the first corner and couldn't take the increased pressure. Until I went back for the link, I didn't realize it was December 2019 when Brad began working Koda with long stretches in between. Not for the lack of wanting to, it was such a crazy busy year for him in so many ways. I am thankful Brad finds time to work with my horse when he can.

Cierra and Nemo joined the walk from inside the pasture
while Brad, Koda and Tank took the path

checking out the open field

walking the upper pines

Koda has only walked the actual pine trails once,
the year we purchased the land and rode them in June 2016

stopping on the main trail to soak it all in

Koda did struggle a bit with too much energy in the wide open field heading back home, but with Brads reassurance he kept himself in check. 

Reassurance is the main reason Brad is handling Koda in precarious situations first. Koda needs it and I don't have that in me naturally. Unfortunately I have to build it back up. I wasn't remotely this way in my younger horse years, but it's my reality now.

This walk gave me hope, and was a great way to kick off a week of warm late Fall weather.