Doc and I have been riding a lot. Last Sunday, Doc and I and my husband and Breezy, even managed to leave from home to go on a trail ride on the trail near our home! Now *that* was verrry awesome! Doc did so well!

Gail, our trainer, has shown me that Doc is a horse that is glad to offer soft if he is shown that the human is requesting it. I wonder if a human has ever asked Doc for anything soft?

Today (April 23, 2004) Doc and I actually ventured to the arena *alone* without his buddy Breezy. Doc was concerned about that once we got there. As insane as I am I did some ground work with him, but still got on him anyhow. He was verrrry responsive to the requests I made of him on the ground after a wonderful lesson with our trainer yesterday near a trail that we never got started on. LOL!

After Doc and I did a few moves around the arena, I took his saddle off and decided to give a try to riding him bareback under these less than ideal circumstances. He was awesome. We rode around the outside of the perimeter of the arena. Stopped and sniffed things and checked out other horses' enclosures. He was calm for most of it. Something upset him at one point and I decided it was a good time to get off. Moments after I dismounted his tension exploded into a spook. He recovered quickly, but I am very thankful that I wasn't on him for that! Tomorrow morning my daughter and I hope to go out to the trail and maybe even ride on the horses ON the trail!