Stinky stall.

I decided to strip the area of his stall that he usually pees in. He's fairly good about using only 1/4 of the stall for his litterbox, so I didn't feel the need to strip the whole thing. The bad area was pretty bad, though. I took it down to the packed ground and it was about 3" of wet compacted sawdust. I stopped counting after 6 bins out to the honey-wagon, but they weren't all the way full. I can lift a full bucket of poo, but apparently NOT wet sawdust so I had to keep them about 1/2 to 3/4 full. I took as much of that area out as I could. No use wasting the dry bedding. I put two full wagons of sawdust back into the stall. He still has sores on the edges of his hocks. I suppose that's from lying down. I tried to add lots of bedding in the area I've seen him lay down in.

We got tacked up and headed into the indoor. I tried to lunge him for a while and he was back to being uninterested in the idea. After several good revolutions to the left he started being a turkey and stopping and refusing to change directions. I'm not savvy enough with a line and whip to really establish dominance on the lunge I guess. Luckily I got him to get a little buck out so I sort of gave up. He mounted very quietly and he rode very well. I'm not sure how long I worked him. I forgot to look at my watch...again. I worked him long at the lope. One little stumble that made my heart stop but other than that he was good. Nice and slow mostly. I can tell I'm getting better at knowing what to do to keep him balanced and he's getting better at obeying my aids. My balance is getting better and better, too. We worked for a while on jog-halt-jog transitions. He got bored with that so we did tight 3 loop serpentines along the short way of the arena. They're hard for him because he's so tall, but it helps him have to learn to keep his feet under himself.

Just like Thursday he was ever so good. I didn't ride yesterday because I worked late and it was raining and I knew he'd be uncooperative and just want to stay in his stall. I don't blame him. All I wanted to do was put on my PJ's and watch a movie. I'm glad he was still really good today. Makes me optimistic!

The weather was about 46 degrees and damp. I was nice and toasty while I was cleaning his stall and riding, but when I was done and had to scrub water buckets I was pretty darn cold with wet hands. I put his rug on for the night. He rolled in his clean bedding before I got his blanket on, so maybe he won't roll poo all over his rug tonight...wishfull thinking I suppose.