Yesterday I went with my grandma to the co-op as she like’s to buy bird seed and gardening things. She brings me every now and again so that I can lift things. I had a fun time grabbing odds and ends that I need including wormer (it‘s never ending I swear you are always buying the stuff), a hoof pick (I hate buying them they are so stupid but I lost the one that goes in the small barn and had to get another one), likit refills for Wynter (Apple and Carrot), a curb chain for Toccata’s English bit, and last but not least sheath cleaner for well, you know.
After we got home I went out with Kayt for a bit and then got back for an evening ride with Wynter. I forgot the likits in the car but I was able to put his apple one in his stall tonight. Back to yesterday… I pulled his blankets off and uggg he is so very hairy… I hate it. I got to body clip him! He is also super out of shape and skinny. I have no idea why he has lost so much weight over the past 4 days. He is not behind on wormer. I have two theories either the sudden increase in work after he has been off has caused him to loose weight or his teeth are worse than I thought. Thus I will be calling our vet tomorrow to see if I can get him out to do boosters and his teeth and maybe Tanoka’s. A while ago (not sure if I blogged it or not) I had spoken with our vet about his teeth. When he go this teeth done the fist time, it was not buy our first vet but our second vet as he is our trainers vet and he was at the trainers when he go them done. So I had our main vet look at them several months ago around the time Kitt had his infection and he said he still had both his wolf teeth. The bad news was that they had not yet broken through the gum yet. I sort of think of it as your wisdom teeth how they do and sometimes don’t come through the gums yet still need to be taken out. I’m thinking he needs it done sooner rather than later so I’m calling the vet tomorrow.
Yet again yesterday I had fun riding him all by my lonesome. It was late so the barn was empty which is nice. No lunging or anything just jumped up on him and he was good but still heavy on his mouth. (Another reason I want his teeth done) I didn’t do much bending as I am out of the practice of doing things and just walked around a bit and then went to work. Still being heavy we backed a bit and did some light trotting and post trotting. I am severely out of shape!!!! It is horrible so I was very soar. Trot work was not fun but alas I do want to start riding Forba again as she will kick my but back into shape fast! The only thing I can note before I speak about him canter work is that he was still heavy on that left rein more so than his right.
Once we got to canter he had two good transitions one good each side. So I walked him out for a second and went back to them his left lead fine his right lead… not so much. We tried it three times when I knew I was doing something wrong. Uggg never stop riding I swear your brain breaks and you forget your system on things. He kept going to the left lead and it was frustrating me. I kept trying different things when it hit me… you know like rock. Side pass. Vola we do a tight circle and side pass into the canter and we have a right lead. Da I should know that. So I had to make him do a few of those so he wouldn’t get any funny ideas. Wynter was none to happy about my new found knowledge either. H e was much happier just going on his left lead. I trotting him out and the cooled him off as he was sweaty.
At the end of the ride I un-tacked him and sprayed his feathers with show sheen and brushed them out. They were clumped full of sand I could not leave them like that. Besides he has to have sexy feathers.
That concludes yesterday and brings me to today. After I put his likit in he had to hew on that while I took his blankets off. I have my doubts that it will be there tomorrow. He is so laid back I just love him, I threw his saddle on and he is like great another ride. Wynter loves working so he was happy about it.
Going into the pen today I was a little unhappy. The trainers had jumps set up in an odd way and poles everywhere. On top of that they obviously had an incident with a horse, as one corner of the arena was tore up. I dropped two poles so that Wynter and I could use them and left everything else alone. Since he has been heavy for the last few days which I’m thinking is basically do to his out of shapeness and lack of capability to hold himself together I started with bending tonight. His is really understanding spur to rein. I added spurs and he was starting the bend without rein pressure. We did that and then walked to stretch his muscles. Instead of just going to trot work I did bending in circles, again because he has been overly heavy. Just doing walk circles and having him bend around the circles was a problem for him. He kept wanting to fall out because I had the inside spur on. So I had to balance by having steady spur on the inside and a tapping with the outside all the while keeping him bent with the inside rein and closing off that outside shoulder with out having him halt. He is very good at stopping when you add steady pressure with both reins. He only slow down if you have both legs on him so with the spurs the way I had them I had to be careful not to add to much outside rein or he was halt. He was still heavy on that left rein. We did a lot of backing which he hated. I think backing is the only thing he does not like about working. He tries to pull the bit away from me by stretching out his head but because he does not like pressure on his face. I just keep my fist closed and he turned his head back under and backs up. He really does have a light mouth, he feels everything. I all I have to do to make him stop is close my fist around the reins and sit, he nearly does a reining stop.
After being around the circles we did inverted circled which he like better they are less confusing to him. Once that was over with we did trot work. At first he was a little low in his pole his balance was off and he was un-rhythmic. The more I changed direction, speed and backed him up the more consistent he got. We would trot over the trot poles which he found very disturbing at first. He just couldn’t keep his rhythm with them, he would completely loose his beat. The more I did them the better he got. He also started to rise his pole ever so slightly. Still being heavy he is getting lighter. Every time he got heavy we’d stop and back up.
Walking just before we started our canter work I started on his left side. Wynter was ok he was going into them well except for popping and nearly tossing his head off of that left rein. During the transition I would check that left rein until he gave and dropped his head into it. Then we’d go down to a walk after he carried himself for a stride. Very uneventful going left. I did have to back him up to get him off his fore hand a few times but was a given.
Go right we did our side passing and we had a 99% accuracy rate. He missed it once. It is odd the way we have to do it. Most green horses you have to do BIG circles as they are just not in shape enough for a 6 foot circle. Not Wynter he can’t get into the right canter with out that tiny little circle. We dang near to doughnuts in the arena to get the correct lead. Once our first set of canter was done I walked him around a bit and went back to it one more time. He wasn’t happy about that as he wanted to be done. This time around I did a tad more backing with him just because he was giving me ‘ttude and being slightly more heavy. We ended on the correct lead going right. I decided to trot him out of it and he decided he would throw his weight into my reins and not go straight. Thus prompted me into making him trot off straight and light.
He got the picture about 4 times and I dropped the reins and called it a night. I forgot to do his feathers tonight but they were not nearly as bad as they were yesterday. Tomorrow I will be the start of a lunging spree. As I just got a massage I choose not to ride the few days after and if the vet is coming to do his teeth well, I can’t ride him in a bit for several days after that. Hopefully I can get some conditioning work done on him and layer him in sweats…. Ohhh I just had the greatest idea ever. I’m body clipping him after he gets his teeth done. That way I wont even have to bother with how he ‘could’ react to the clippers under his belly! Genius and safe. Now I must inform my mother… she will love that!
I found this on some blog somewhere and found it overly amusing….
10. Drop a heavy steel object on your foot. Don't pick it up right away. Shout, "Get off, Stupid, GET OFF!"
9. Leap out of a moving vehicle and practice "relaxing into the fall." Roll lithely into a ball and spring to your feet.
8. Learn to grab your checkbook out of your purse and write out a $1000 check without even looking down.
7. Jog long distances carrying a halter and a carrot. Go ahead and tell the neighbors what you are doing - they might as well know now.
6. Affix a pair of reins to a moving freight train and practice pulling to a halt. Smile as if you are having fun.
5. Hone your fibbing skills: "See, moving hay bales is FUN!" and "No, really, I'm glad your lucky performance and multimillion dollar horse won the blue ribbon. I am just thankful that my hard work and actual ability won me second place." 3. Borrow the US Army's slogan: Be All That You Can Be -- bitten, thrown, kicked, slimed, trampled, frozen... 2. Lie face down in a puddle of mud in your most expensive riding clothes and repeat to yourself, "This is a learning experience, this is a learning experience, this is ......." 1. The number one exercise to become a better equestrian is MARRY MONEY !
4. Convince yourself that being bucked off 7 times makes you a "REAL RIDER"
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment