Day Two Spurs

My cell phone rang bright and early this morning around 10. It was the vet calling me back after I called yesterday about Kitt. They said he will be out around 1:30ish. Sounds great. When he arrived he instantly took his temp and then checked him out. He was very relieved at what he saw. It is only a superficial infection, meaning it isn’t infected up in the surgery sight. He then told me what I wanted to do in the first place, rinse it out and give him the antibiotics. He had to give me more of those and we were set. Poor Kitt first he looses them and then he gets infected.

Yesterday I realized that Wynter’s teeth haven’t been done since he was in training. Jen had her vet do them before he got started with the bit. Which is a smart thing to do. You need to go in there and make sure there is a place for the bit to comfortably sit. If not you get head tossing and bad habits arise early making the initial training un-fun and unproductive. There is no since spending the time and money of training if it won’t do any good in the future. Get your youngsters teeth done before you send them to the trainer! I always do my horses once a year unless they are not being used then I skip a year but most of the time it’s a yearly expense. I asked out vet to check out Wynters teeth to see what he thought about them. I wasn’t sure if he really needed much done if not anything. Our vet was happy to check him out.

He told me that he looks ok. He is loosing some of his baby teeth one of which he flicked out because it was just hanging there. There is one baby tooth on the bottom jaw that is causing the adult tooth to come in crooked so he plans on pulling that when we do the rest of him. The big news for me was his wolf teeth. He doesn’t have the bottom ones and he can’t feel any coming in on the left. The right side has one that has not broken through the gum line. He said that it may never come in but can cause him irritation.

His right side is the one I have issues with and those wolf teeth are right where the snaffle lays. Fun stuff. He tells me that I need to think about a time when I can get him done. Since he will have to slice open the gum to pull the tooth out he will not be able to have a bit in his mouth for a week! Ack! I am not liking that thought but I guess we can master that bow and work in the round pen for a while. I’m thinking of having him come out in the next month. That way I can finish up with my lessons and will have time to lay him off for a week.

In other news I am looking for schooling shows for us to attend. He needs the practice. We will be hitting the EMR winter schooling series for sure, we practically live there during the winter! It is the first Sunday of every month and starts next month, I’m excited. I really want to find a few new barns to go to so I can show him new places. He needs that exposure.

After our vet left I pulled my tack from the horse trailer and brought it into the barn. I lunged him about 3 times both directions, he was quiet and humble today. I didn’t think he would need a big lunging sessions before hand. Jumping on him we stood next to the mounting block for about 3 straight minuets before we moved. He stood and looked around wondering what the cows were doing at the neighbors.

Yesterday sunk into his head very very well! I was impressed. After we bent and I showed him that I had those poky things on my heels again we went for a trot. He sprang into it and was like ‘I’m engaging mom I’m engaging!’ Ha ha ha. He was very forward although still dropping out with the shoulder and in with the hind end. His hind end was a million years better today. It wasn’t a mile into the circle it was just a tad in.

We worked on the right side first since it is the harder side. Thinking forward we did a lot of canter ‘fakies’ taking a step or two then going back to trot. Those are weird to sit to. I was getting jolted slamming down or getting slammed by the saddle. At one point I just pushed him forward and made him canter. I continued with the shoulder in haunches straight idea instead of riding the ‘lope’. We did a lot of posting trot circles both ways and then walked. Next we did some sit trot down the long walls. It was a working dressage trot. He felt phenomenal if not a little crooked. I could feel every step, it made me want to toss my English saddle on him. His right side was a lot better doing this exercise today than it was yesterday. He was tracking up behind a lot better. So now it was keeping him off the rail that was hard!

I’m glad I have to ride Arlo with spurs. He taught me how to use them correctly. With Wynter I ‘m glad I know what I’m doing with them to an extent. I am trying hard to use my legs first and then spur if he doesn’t listen. I’m terrified of getting him dull to the spur, that is a horrible thing to fix and I don’t want to go there with this horse. On the left he is super light off my leg on the right he gives his rib cage but snakes his shoulder and neck around going toward it. Which is odd, it feels snaky even. This got the crop some action. A tap on the poll and he goes away from the pressure. Today I was seriously questioning my crop. With spurs I really not need it. Tomorrow I will ride with it but if I don’t use it then I’m going to stop riding with it. Spurs are looking like they are enough for him at this point.

After our long wall we walked out again and then went to lope work, or should I call it canter work now? Anyway, I expected him to be higher in the poll today than yesterday and sure enough he was. Not enough for me to correct him down I still had to bump him up. We did circles for a while and then did the whole pen. Our circle were good I was trying really hard to get his hip to stay under him and his shoulder off the rail.

When we did the whole arena he was really good on the left but doing right he tried to dive in on the corner and latch to the wall going out of them. Spur spur spur rein rein rein, block the shoulder push the hip. Don’t forget to check his head up! Ugg it wasn’t as pretty as I wanted it to be but he is learning something. He was very forward so that was good, just by the way he was moving and where his head was showed me he was using himself a lot better than before. So I was ok with having a little imperfection in the canter work. He gave me a few good stride’s being and a good turn around the end I called it done.

The end was funny. He is usually really really good at whoa. You say it he stops. Well, today he blew through me twice. I backed up telling him whoa while I did it, the third time he stopped by voice. I leaped off him and called it a day. Being sweaty I rinsed him off and put him away for the night.

Tomorrow I will try and get photos or something.