Lesson day for the horses

I came down with a cold that was kicking my butt and although I felt horrible I was determined that I was riding in some lessons with Mogie who had come up from Aiken this weekend. I thought I would ride Letterman and Areutrue but Letterman had gotten kicked in the gaskin earlier in the week so I hadn’t been on him. He looked ouchy on Thursday but not lame so he had been getting the bute/cold hose therapy. I packed Letterman, London, and Areutrue on the trailer and figured I would sort it out when I got there.

I decided to ride Areutrue first as he is always such a good boy and he wouldn’t use up all my energy. I realized this was his first off the farm trip and first time in an indoor but of course he walked in there like he owned the place. I walked a lap in hand while the lesson finished up and he was just checking things out but never even seemed nervous.

Mogie commented that he didn’t even have a spook in him. He is just so professional about his job and goes right to work. He’s a horse that was probably ridden in a yoke at the track so he wants to tuck himself into a frame but he travels a bit up and down instead of out. I’ve been getting him to uncurl at home and today we worked on  the same thing. Trying to get him to stretch out a bit and even sending him a bit more forward than necessary so that he uses his shoulder more freely.

His canter is still a bit weak and steering him is hard because he wants to come behind the bit but that takes time. He’s really willing to learn and tries so hard. He has a fantastic canter and a really good balance. It just takes a bit time to get them strong so they can balance, bend and come up all at the same time.

I looked and I rode him for the first time on December 9th!! He has less than 2 months under saddle being ridden 3-4x a week and he’s doing so well. I could go on and on about how much I like this horse. He has the best brain in the world and he’s just so sweet. You can feel him thinking so hard and trying to figure out what you are asking. He never gets flustered. I was amazed that despite being in a totally new place he stood perfectly still to get tacked up, mounted and untacked. He’s just such a good boy. He also did not care that the other horse left and he was in the indoor all by himself. I didn’t even know the other horse had left.

Here is his video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX0cOve9vQE&feature=youtu.be

I decided I would hop on Letterman and see how he was feeling.  Ha, um he was feeling full of himself. He had never been in an indoor and when I went in they were jumping courses so he was extra keyed up. The one thing about Letterman is that although he appears intimidating he would never do anything scary. I feel safer on him then I do walking him around so I just got on. He was being silly about things like the muck bucket in the corner but that is totally Letterman. If he wasn’t looking at stuff then I would be worried He was quite good until the horse left the indoor and then he threw a fit. We boinked around a bit, he hollered and tried a few little manuevers to go back to the in gate. They are all very mild which is excellent so I just redirected his anger into a positive directions.

My mom joined me for the lesson on her young horse and we both sort of experienced some issues with OMG my new BFF is at the other end of the ring I have to go down there or I will die..please let me go down there. It’s a good experience to get horses in new situations like this so they can learn that they will survive.

Mogie hadn’t seen Letterman in a long time and was really impressed by how far he has come. I am still really working on bending to the right. He loves dropping his right shoulder and laying on that right leg so it’s lots and lots of leg yields. He’s very smart and tries hard which is all that I can ask for out of him. I tend to ride him less than all the rest of the horses so half the time I’m amazed he’s as far along as he is so I’m just thrilled with him. He was super excited that he got to jump. He tried his little drop his shoulder move and we almost took out Kurt which was funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th2Yhd_lvjo

I need to be softer in between the jumps but he’s still very looky and you can see how he’s sort of doing this little prop thing which is weird but no worries.

I was absolutely feeling crappy after riding both horses so I decided to just lunge London. I could barely breathe and I was exhausted from being sick.  It was also his first off the farm trip and if you aren’t prepared to ride well then you shouldn’t ride. He was a bit on edge but when he went out to the outdoor ring he was really good. There was so much to see and nobody around so I thought he was quite brave. I lunged him through this big puddle and he thought that was fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFI08mmZyyg

I’m proud of all my boys.

Advertisement