Fancy Flyer: Part Two

First Off I have to say... I'M SORRY, ive gotten kind of lazy lately with posting. But since my last post about Fancy Flyer. . . . hes had his first ride, thrown me off three times, had a couple more rides, learned how to walk, trot, and lope, stop, back up, turn left, turn right, bend at the pole, lower his big head, pick up all four feet, and not think twice in the process. Somewhere about a month and a half through his training something just clicked. I had gotten walking in both directions with out any spooking down purty well. So on the next ride I decided... "Im Gonna Get A Trot And A Lope Out Of This Dang Horse If It Kills Me." Its not that I had not tried... I tried two times and he through me off twice. Today was gonna be different, I thought. About the time I asked for him to trot off he decided that he really needed to get across the roundpen really really quick, and I came off. I caught the tip of my middle finger on somthin and it gave a purty good rip... after i got it cleaned up and dad put on some non slip reins made out of 1" cotton lead i jumped right back on. I was ready for the bolt this time and when I told him to trot on sure enough he took off like a bat out of...well you know. I put a death grip on the horn and rode him out until he was just in a flat out run. After he calmed down everything just seemed to CLICK. I got him through the rest of his training...which was basically doing a walk trot and lope outside the roundpen, and it was time to take him back. He couldnt have done any better when I showed him off... perfect walk trot and lope in a big indoor arena with all kinds of scary things like jumps and rails laying around just waiting for him to slip up once. HE DID AWESOME!!! All in all Fancy Flyer was my biggest learning experience and challenge of my 3 yrs of training horses that ended up to be one of the most trusting partersIve ever had.