CRUIZER IS 5 NOW

Its been awhile since I last updated. I've been really busy. I'm gonna try and start updating this consistently again though. April 9th was the two year anniversary of Beamer's death. Followed by April 11th which was Cruizer's fifth birthdaaaay! We measured him on the 10th, because we had a clinic on his actual birthday. He is still 16.3 hands, I think he's pretty much done growing height wise. He kept moving funky all last week when the hunt saddle was on him. I put it on with no pad, and whaddya know? It's getting tight across the withers. Sooo we are hunt saddle-less. I've been riding him in a western saddle since then, and he's been pretty good. On Sunday there was a western clinic with Paint judge Bob Ross at our barn. I didn't ride in it, but I did do the showmanship portion with Cruizer. He was pretty good. I screwed up the pattern and overshot the pivot majorly the first time and had to pull turn back. I thought his trot offs were reaaaaally sluggish, but Bob said they were good so I guess that's alright. As of yesterday I've had Cruizer for one year! Yaaay. It's been a good year. Some highs (walworth show, sms at state, rides at home) and some definite lows (getting bucked off rodeo style, riding classes at state, mystery lameness, bolting nonstop, major 4yr old moments..) but I love him. He looks sooooo different. He has gained so much muscle and doesn't look like a scrawny baby anymore. Anyway. I rode him last night in the outdoor and he was amazing. I did not lunge him at all. Just pulled him from the pasture, tacked up, and got on. He was a bit energetic at first but we trotted it out. He had a meltdown last week where we spent a whole hour (our entire ride) trying to get a turn on the forehand. I asked him for a 180 degree forehand turn last night during our ride and he nailed it. We also worked some on western pleasure loping (even though he doesn't neck rein.. the turning part was kind of interesting) and some simple changes. Overall he was awesome. I hope he rides like that again today. I'm going to start working on side passing soon. That's our next goal. Side passing.