Papers!!!!

Not much to update. I gave him the day off today since it's raining and chilly and I felt more like making a quilt than driving in the rain. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having the CHOICE of whether or not I will ride on any given day. That is the most wonderful freedom of owning a horse. I can ride whenever and however I want. I don't have to ask anyone's permission. It's pretty sweet. And speaking of owning a horse, his PAPERS finally came back and I'm officially his owner! It says so right on his registration papers!

I did go out yesterday and lunge him. My back was/is still not so well so I opted for a lunging session instead of riding. I let him out in the turn-out first (sadly not much grass there, but he seemed to enjoy the sunshine) while I cleaned his stall. He's still scraping his left hock pretty bad. I can only assume it's on the stall floor. I've been trying to deepen his stall in the middle where it seems he lays down, but it doesn't seem to stick. That area isn't usually messy so I don't think the stall cleaner is taking too much bedding out of that area. I wonder if he digs there and moves the bedding around? I don't know what else it could be. I think about getting a stall matt sometimes, but the cost is pretty substantial and I just don't know if I can swing that. And I don't know if it's worth it for a skinned hock that doesn't seem to bother him. I keep putting ointment on it.

Anyway, back to the workout. He started out pretty fresh as always but when he quit that crap and started really working he was great! He's been responding extremely well to the verbal commands, especially TROT and CANTER. I had him going back and forth from trot to canter and back for a bit all the while he was in proper frame (in just a snaffle bridle, no side reins or anything) so I think our work under saddle is improving how he moves on the lunge, too. I think he needs to build some more strength at the canter so he has the power to go slower and his transitions under saddle to the lope can be really good or not good at all so working those without my dumb ass on top of him is better for him. He was "with me" so well that I cooled him out (he actually worked up a sweat in the 50 degree weather) by lunging him at the walk for a good while. That was really nice. He was relaxed and listening to me. Two other horses were being lunged at the same time and he was nice and relaxed even though the other two were bucking and tearing around. I spent years having the craziest horse in the ring (silly Arabs in shows full of kid-broke QH's) and it's really nice to now have the calmest one in the ring sometimes!


BTW - sometimes I feel like I write things that I've already written in other posts. I swear I'm not crazy, it's just that I free-write and I have excellent WPM so I can actually type almost as fast as I can think. So forgive me if I sound like a broken record, I really don't mean to! :)

Sadly my 5 day weekend is over and I have to go back to work tomorrow.