Reining

Hi. So this is my first blog post. Hopefully I don't go off on a rant about something pointless that no one will understand. Haha, like that's what a blog is supposed to be about???
Anyway, I wanted to write about what I did yesterday with my horse. Or rather, what my horse did with me yesterday. We rented an arena just up the road from us, and its the first time this horse has been in an indoor arena. (He is only 4 years old, and I just acquired him in January.) First of all, we had to walk through their barn area to get to the arena. He was so amazing, nervous but willing to follow me to the ends of the earth. I love that horse, he is so willing, trusting, people friendly and wants to learn. Anyway, we get down into the arena, and I started doing a big, oval shaped pattern at the far end. First of all, he was scared of going near the corners or the big, garage-type door at the end of the arena. But once we worked through his claustrophobia, he was awesome. We started walking this oval shaped pattern, and once he relaxed, I asked him to trot. He is such a fast learner, it took all of 3 rounds around the pattern for him to figure out that he should stay in the direction I asked him to until I asked him to do something else. We then tried loping, and as he isn't very coordinated or practiced under saddle at the lope yet, he was a bit awkward, but other than that was very, very good. At this point, I wondered how he was at stopping, as none of my previous horses that I had ridden were very good at it. Leroy (the one I'm riding now; he is a 4 year old Morgan gelding) is much more athletic in other ways than my previous horses, so I thought I'd give it a try. So I trotted him out along the rail, asking him for his beautiful extended trot. I then threw the reins down on his neck, and said "WHOA." (I guess I forgot to mention that nobody ever trained this horse to stop before.) Well, he sat right down and stopped right there. It was the perfect sliding stop. This is how athletic and natural this horse is. And, by the way, I was riding him this entire time with a halter and lead rope. Not that I had to use the reins to stop him. I love this horse even more now, and I am very excited to get him spinning and see how he does with that. I think this horse will take me into the show ring and win us a few blue ribbons.