Uno is good.
My horses like to alternate 'issues.' I just seem to not be able to get a consistent month where both are in work. Either due to weather, scheduled down time, or injury, someone is not working all the time.
Since we moved our hay to the bottom of the hill my Big Guy is NQR behind. He has a history of stifle, hock, and lower back soreness, so the new amount of daily hill work - up and down a pretty steep grade for at least 4 - 5 round trips a day - is not unexpected. What sucks is that it is timed right as he was really starting to understand and build strength in his laterals. A month of shoulder-fore to renvers is really helping him supple through his shoulders.
So he will get a few days of previcox, a massage, and we will see what we have early next week.
With the Uns, I have found that he "understands" better if you give him a small break after "high pressure" lessons.
In our Easter lesson, PT (Patient Trainer) really forced me to stop babying him. The number of times she said, "No he can do that, stop inventing excuses for him." Was a bit sad and humorous. However, we got tough and insisted that baby horses CAN W-T-C without flinging their heads about. Also turning is a thing he does now just so long as I never question that he will turn. Our other light bulb moment was the realization that he prefers for me to sit on him. This is so opposite of what the big many likes (tension is best galloped away with an open stride and half seat for 10 to 15 minutes) that it never occurred to me that half his fussing would go away if I sat down on him and really focused on wrapping my legs around him and letting him feel me.
Then it rained, and rained, and rained. So his week off turned into 2 weeks off. This week he did two days of lunging - one working on trot - canter transitions and one day free jumping.
As an extension of our "sit on me" idea from the lesson I got on with a bareback pad. This is all I used when I first started riding him, but it got put up because his trot used to rattle my bones. Low and behold he is now strong enough to give me a lovely place to sit. Our ride yesterday was not perfect, but as Denny Emerson says it is ok to stop when things are good - it doesn't have to be perfection.
Moral of the story - There is always something to celebrate!
Since we moved our hay to the bottom of the hill my Big Guy is NQR behind. He has a history of stifle, hock, and lower back soreness, so the new amount of daily hill work - up and down a pretty steep grade for at least 4 - 5 round trips a day - is not unexpected. What sucks is that it is timed right as he was really starting to understand and build strength in his laterals. A month of shoulder-fore to renvers is really helping him supple through his shoulders.
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| An old picture. But seriously CUTEST horse EVAH! |
With the Uns, I have found that he "understands" better if you give him a small break after "high pressure" lessons.
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| So he spent the week doing THIS! |
In our Easter lesson, PT (Patient Trainer) really forced me to stop babying him. The number of times she said, "No he can do that, stop inventing excuses for him." Was a bit sad and humorous. However, we got tough and insisted that baby horses CAN W-T-C without flinging their heads about. Also turning is a thing he does now just so long as I never question that he will turn. Our other light bulb moment was the realization that he prefers for me to sit on him. This is so opposite of what the big many likes (tension is best galloped away with an open stride and half seat for 10 to 15 minutes) that it never occurred to me that half his fussing would go away if I sat down on him and really focused on wrapping my legs around him and letting him feel me.
Then it rained, and rained, and rained. So his week off turned into 2 weeks off. This week he did two days of lunging - one working on trot - canter transitions and one day free jumping.
As an extension of our "sit on me" idea from the lesson I got on with a bareback pad. This is all I used when I first started riding him, but it got put up because his trot used to rattle my bones. Low and behold he is now strong enough to give me a lovely place to sit. Our ride yesterday was not perfect, but as Denny Emerson says it is ok to stop when things are good - it doesn't have to be perfection.
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| Another old picture but one of my favorite of my boys. |
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