Despite the chilly temperatures, riding lessons continued. I've got some tough kids! Koda's training also continued. He will be done with his 30 days tomorrow. The time has flown by! He is really doing quite well. He has become much more responsive and willing. He hasn't tried to crow-hop since our second ride. He seems fairly comfortable when we ride out away from the other horses. I'm continuing to work on developing softness and collection.
One challenge the cold and snow has brought is poor footing. I typically leave my horses unshod during the winter. Unless it is icy, they usually do ok traction-wise. Koda has shoes on, which tends to really gather the snow into tennis ball size clumps. There hasn't been any ice because it's been too cold for the snow to melt, but the snow clumps combined with his metal shoes make it so that his feet are slipping out from under him quite frequently. Friday we were just walking quietly down the road when he suddenly did a cartoon scramble to stay upright. It's worse if we try to pick up speed. I focused a lot the last several days on bending and softening, which worked ok because he needed that anyway. I'm grateful for the warmer temperatures the last few days!