Playing With Energy!

The other day when Jelly and I were coming back from our daily constitutional, I was delighted to see Split and Jingle cavorting around the paddock! Well, Split was cavorting....Jingle was pretty much just running around and shaking her little donkey head at Split. Split, however, was running, spinning, bucking, farting, whinnying, performing airs above the ground and in general just having a heck of a good time! I thought, "Hmmm....I wonder if I could play with that energy?" I hitched Jelly up in front of the barn, grabbed my dressage whip ("whip" being a misnomer...it's actually an arm extender for me!), and stepped into the paddock. Jingle hopped into her stall and waited patiently for a flake of hay but Split stopped dead, snorted and stared at me, wondering what I was doing there. I stepped to his side, waved my arm and said, "Walk on." "Oh," says he, and off he went at a lovely, bouncy walk. We quickly transitioned up into the trot and then into the canter. What a joy to see! Split was practically floating along....so proud of himself! His trot was exquisite! He was snapping his knees up and just prancing along like he owned the world! We played with lunging at liberty in both directions, at all 3 gaits, and it was absolutely exhilarating! Of course I could also ask WHOA and Split stopped immediately - he got his C/T for that!!!
WHOA is important in my world and we practice at every opportunity! LOL
I'm glad I didn't pass up the chance to play with that energy! At first I was asking myself "can I control it" but really what I needed to ask was, "can I USE it?" The answer was "yes!" Great fun!!
Christmas is only a week away! Hope you all have your shopping done!
Karleen, Split and Jingle