Baby horsing

 The life and times of baby Lew.

Lew's last two rides are getting pretty serious.  He is under saddle for 30 - 45 minutes.  We spend most of the time walking, with small amounts of trot.  He has really started to soften in his neck and hold his own balance.  His hind end is still a bit janky.

It is easy to see with your eyes, his Superficial Glute and the Gluteal Facia stand up off his body.  That little trapezoid of muscle seems stuck in the flexed position.  We have been doing a lot of carrot stretches and massages of other areas hoping to help.  He really gets into having his traps and hams massaged. We have also started some groundwork to help him move correctly and strengthen his topline to help him carry himself.  Some of this body soreness comes from having really poor feet, and some of it is just residual soreness from how tight everything was when he got here.  

Leeetle trot

This tension has never really impacted his walk, and walking continues to help him loosen up.  It does show up in his trot, mainly over a pole.  He trots along perfectly happy (if small) until he hits a pole.  Then he either walks and very differently lifts each foot, or he trots smoothly with the front, then just doesn't cover the distance with the back.  

We have been walking larger and wider piles of poles under saddle for about 2 weeks.

Better trot

Yesterday, we had a real breakthrough.  We trotted over a pole under saddle with the correct footwork.

This breakthrough is brought together by 2 things - the first is the slow progress of balance and muscle.  The second is that his new bridle and bit make steering SO MUCH easier.  Lew tends to run through the outside shoulder, and baby steering often means a very wide open hand and too much bend.  This means that as he would fall out on the turn he would lose all his balance and forward at the same time.  So I went to a hanging cheek french link on a Micklem bridle and suddenly we need way less hand to turn which means I can be quieter, which means he doesn't fall out the shoulder, which means we keep our collective balance longer.

The slobber is bright green cause TREATS!!

Such a good baby.

He is still only doing things every other day, with only 2 rides a week.  This baby stage is so fun, he is so smart and once he gets going he is really happy to just toodle along.  Here is too more trot poles and fun rides.