Big Bird's Success Story for the Day

I haven't had the heart to blog much since Ivan passed away, but I have to brag about the big bird today :) I booted him up and stayed either in the arena or in the grass, and he's more comfortable that he was the other day. A couple mis-steps on the left fore, but mostly sound almost the whole time aside from that. Sebastian did very well in the arena today, giving me a rather nice shoulder-in, a great stretchy trot with his nosie nearly to the ground when I asked him to stretch long, a few great strides of renvers, AND THEN HE WENT DOWN THE BIG HILL TO THE BACK TRAILS WITHOUT FUSSING!!!! We didn't do the entirety of the back trails, just the big hill down to the bridge and back again. We went back into the arena, worked a little more, then hacked out down the road to Allison's driveway and back :) He got many cookies for being such a good boy :-D