This week, Cody & I have continued to prepare for the State Fair with several early pre-sunrise mornings & warm evenings trying to beat the worst of the heat. We continued to work on his handle at the trot & lope with the romel reins, with drastic improvement seen there. He's not quite as soft at the trot & lope as he is at the walk, but it continues to improve. Cody is stronger to the left with his leads than the right & sometimes has trouble finding the right lead so we spent a fair bit of time work on that for his NeRHA events. We're signed up for Green Horse Ranch Trail on Sunday evening with Ranch Reining (reining pattern), & Ranch Riding (essential Ranch Pleasure on the rail) on Monday. On Thursday, we got to see the patterns, which gave us a chance to prepare a bit further. The Trail pattern has a 'rope the dummy' obstacle (no long drag this show) so we spent time practicing that. Aside from picking up a right lead in a tight area, trailer loading might be the only other tricky obstacle. Cody's been loading onto my trailer great, but loading onto a bumper pull trailer in the show ring can be a little different. Overall, Cody has made leaps & bounds of progress since he's been here. As far as his handle goes, he's quite a bit different compared to the snaffle-bit horse that arrived. I would be comfortable riding him out on the trail in romel reins if need be; however, for your sake, that's not necessary. I would leave the snaffle bit behind, as he's been much happier in a shanked bit. You'll have to see how he does with your Myler bit. It might be quite similar to the mouthpiece of the snaffle bit, which may cause him to be a bracey, but you'll truly just have to see! He's really become quite fun over the past couple of weeks working in the solid frog-mouthed bit. I hope you might consider joining the Academy with him & potentially working towards showing him next year! - Lexy Nuesch
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