In the morning I sat in my outdoor toilet, watching the winter view. My horses stood peacefully, looking back at me. Silently in my mind I decided to postpone all the other things and start my day working with the horses. I went indoors to have some breakfast. And when I came back outdoors I found Velmu already waiting next to the gate. I really don't know how much they can read my mind, but sometimes it really looks like they can =)

I let Velmu go free, and he went to eat hay from a bale - as usual. I mounted Raiku and allowed her to go eating as well. After a while I asked her to back away from the haybale, and we rode a small cirlce in the yard. Then I let her go back eating. We repeated this several times, combined with different small exercises like stopping for a while, turning around, making two circles instead of one, and sometimes heading away from the yard and then returning back. This time we didn't leave the yard at all, I thought that it is good to make stops and turns at the safety of the yard, with a lot of rewarding breaks for eating. When approaching the haybale, I sometimes asked Raiku to stop for a while. After a peaceful moment of standing still I let her go eating. So, this is how our training goes; little things, small steps.

And because I felt like Cheyenne from Once Upon a Time in the West, here are some pictures: