So... I talked to Juli, Dr. Kate's rehab girl, about Dan's icky canter. She said that it's sometimes normal, especially if he was stupid in the field or we over did it. And... ha! He was potentially stupid in the field because they were running around like fools because of the tree work Friday and then Saturday when I let them out in that field. So that made me feel better. She said to see how he felt and he may need a few light days. But if he kept feeling icky to let them know and he may need a recheck.
So on Monday I managed to sneak in a quick lunge since daylight savings time had kicked in. I took him to the arena because the footing was better after all the rain Friday and Sunday. And I took his blanket off (it was a COLD WINDY day) and just had the halter and the lunge line. We did a few minutes of pillar work and then I asked him to trot. I even put out some ground poles and we walked over those too. But the second I put him on the lunge, he grabbed it and started trotting. I managed to keep him the first time or two and just had to trot with him around the arena but the third time or so he got loose. And then he just went rogue! He started galloping around the arena like a fool! But both right and left lead canter and they looked fairly normal. But he ran so long and so hard that when I finally did catch him (like.. I don't know, at least 6 minutes or so) he was blowing!! You sir, are a brat! I decided that it was not conducive to work and so I gathered his stuff up and marched his butt down to the roundpen. Worse footing be darned, you are going to have to work properly! By the time we got down there he had stopped blowing and puffing so we went to work. He managed to trot like a normal boy. He did grab the lead rope a few times but because he was contained, it didn't really matter. And then he got bored with it. ha ha. Yep, it's not fun when you can't act the fool! He was a bit tipped/leaning but we managed to get him more upright again. We did a canter both ways and ... it's not lovely, but it doesn't look quite as bad as it felt, so.. maybe?! I didn't do much since he had worn himself out!
So then Tuesday I snuck in a ride at home. We had trailer training with Lyric and by the time we finished I wanted some lunch and by then.. it was late enough that despite desperately wanting to go to Ashland for a nice long hack, I decided I should ride at home. I still had to go pick up hay 30 minutes away and load/unload it. So I rode at home.
I opted to try the thorowgood on him. He seemed okay with it. But yeah, he also needs a shorter girth. The 56 is doable but it's super high and the teeniest bit loose still. We did a long warm up with our 10 meter figure 8.. then we did some figure 8 serpentines/riddling. Then we did our Kelly Eaton homework with getting him reaching forward, down and out, but on the bit. He was good. Then we trotted and same thing. We did our homework. Then we cantered. And.. the first right lead canter felt awful again but the second and third one wasn't as bad. It even got almost normal by the end. The left lead felt pretty good. And we got some good stretching too. It was a short ride but I figured given the fact that he was a fool yesterday and the canter was still a bit icky, a lighter ride was better. Plus I wanted to do the neighborhood hack because.. I feel like his fitness is lacking (obviously ... puffy mypuffandpantface). And I feel like some good 2 hour long walks would be good for him too. Which, we can't do 2 hours in the neighborhood, but we can do the 1.6 miles. So we did. We hacked to the tennis courts and said hi to Jean and her crew. They were heading in and invited us, but Dan and I wanted to keep going. We turned left and as we were heading the curve by the 1080 house Dan saw some dogs and then Brookes horses and got all snorty and scared. And pooped right smack in the middle of the road. Dude... So I had to get off and I kicked it all over to the side. It was messy but at least it wasn't a huge poop pile. Luckily there was a little bit of a ditch that I could park him in so I could get back on. He was still nervous until we got to Brookes house and then he settled a bit again. We hacked back and I tried to keep him in pillar 1, on contact, and reaching forward, down and out the whole way. It didn't work, as he was tense, but we tried.
Then today I managed to have a short quick few minutes between work so I took him to the arena and we did pillar work. No lunging! ha ha! Not falling for that again sir! We also did the poles again. I probably only did about 15 minutes max of pillar work, but I felt like that needed to be done. And then tonight he got the bemer!
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