Should I have let him run?

Well I had just the best ride on Joe... I have to say a great big thank you to Audrey, if not for her three rides on him I would still be waiting until I could do some more ground work, you are awesome!!!!

I have never had a really bad ride on this horse, he has never done anything to make me so scared or feel so unsafe that I had to get off, but he can and does object from time to time and thankfully I have learned enough to gently persuade him to see things my way. He is the type of horse that will go into himself and that can be dangerous, but, he gives a lot of warning, you have to really not be paying attention to not notice it happening.

I had no real agenda in mind I just wanted to ride and have fun, I was only going to walk and if he was doing ok I would work on walk trot transition, if not so be it, we would just walk, no pressure. So about 20 minutes into the ride I got some soft blowing and he gently pulled the reins from my hands as he stretched down, it was really nice. We started with the transitions. What a good boy.

But.... everyime he saw the barn he wanted to head that way and he did his stepping backward thing, but again nothing to bad, nothing I could not handle. It gave me a chance to ask nicely for what I wanted and for him to answer nicely, there were no real battles.

Now I have to admit I did something I should not have done but I could not help it! I always bring him back when he brakes his gate, this horse loves to run and I love it when he does but it has to be safe I have to have control. This was our first ride alone in well since last fall and I did not think letting him out was a wise thing to do, especially since he wanted to get back to the barn, he is fast, very, very fast!!!. But I do let my horses have some say in things if they ask nice and if its safe so when he broke into a canter the split second it happened I started to bring him back but he was soft.......I just let him be and we had such a nice, slow, controlled canter, he just wanted to run a little, not away from me, not to the barn, just run for the sake of running. Should I have let him, probably not, but I tell you it was so much fun....