Okay, so I've been being an academic equine geek and I'm loving it. I read a book on stretching exercises for horses, and then a book on horses and yoga, and now I'm happily reading a book on schooling with ground poles. The book gave me lots of great ideas for playing with Renny and Violet. I'm writing this entry on March 23rd, and this past Sunday, I set up 4 activity stations based on the book. For the first, I set up a cavaletti in the second position. For the second, I set up cones to make a box for the turn on the hindquarters. For the third, I set up a little serpentine box for trotting turns, and then a set of four poles in a circle, for different sizes of trotting circles. My little herd was very professional and accomplished and they both even happily half-passed down the long side afterwards to really stretch their legs. They were terrific! I am looking forward to trying other ground pole exercises too, such as cantering over a series of poles, setting up poles around the perimeter to practice different trots and canters, cantering ground pole "virtual" jumping courses, etc. And then using poles to improve both of their dressage strength and capabilities. I'm truly having a blast trying out new things!!