Saturday, August 7, 2010

Summer ride

It's been a long time since I've ridden, perhaps only once since pulling his shoes after our last endurance ride. Today we had a break in the weather, a slight breeze, so I planned to ride a short bit before helping to move a ton of hay. He was eager to go and met me at the gate. His hooves were very hard packed and it took a bit for me to even find the frog. He has put on a little weight (as expected) and I found his english girth to be a hole larger than average.

We headed out to the field and I mounted up. He walked to the end willingly but as we turned east the acting up began. It was just as I'd expected and experience before. First I had him back a couple steps every time he acted up but that soon led to him balking and then spinning and all while his head was high up in the air. There was probably a couple of minutes when I was not sure if I would win the battle but I worked to get him moving, to give him an outlet to channel his energy and eventually we worked through it. He wanted to run for the barn, so I worked to keep him to a slow trot (or jig), then made him move out (faster trot) heading away from the barn. Back and forth a number of times. When I could finally ask for the walk heading back and get it, then we called it a day and ended on a good note.

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