8th Ride

Ashke greeted me with a whinny and a head tossing demand for carrots. I obliged, then walked over to the show barn to use the bathroom. Jiggers (short for jigsaw puzzle, which is what her face reminded her owner of) stopped me and requested that I throw her frisbee for her, which I did several times. The arena was freshly drug and looked so very inviting that I was excited to get out on it. The one friendly barn cat stopped me and demanded pets, which she got, then I finally made my way back to Ashke. I got him out and groomed him, giving him the once over looking for issues, but there were none. I have been treating the left hind that has the scar tissue and thickness from his injury in 2016 with Surpass and it has taken the thickness down a lot. I will keep using it until all of the residual inflammation is gone. Saddled and bridled, then I pulled him into the indoor and we started our ride.

Shoulder in was okay, although it took a bit to get him moving forward with proper bend. I don’t know why this is a struggle right now, unless it is an early indicator that we need to get his hocks done again. We worked on them up and down the arena until I finally got two attempts in a row in each direction and we moved on to some lateral work.

We did leg yields at the trot across the arena in both directions from centerline. He was really good at keeping his body straight with just his shoulders leading by a hair. Then we did trot half pass from centerline to the rail. He was very good at that exercise. So then I did leg yield from the rail to centerline, straightened for two steps and then half passed back to the rail. We did that in both directions and he was so good.

The lateral movement gave way to trot serpentines with walk transitions. I concentrated on remaining soft and releasing a breath as I asked with my legs for a downward transition. He was soft in response and felt balanced and calm in the transitions. We moved from the trot to the canter, still working the serpentines with walk transitions. He listened very well and I am using me voice to help clarify what I want him to do while we are figuring out the changes. 

Next, we did a set of six flying changes, which were clean and crisp, although he did give me one a little early, going up and down the arena. I had been adding plenty of walk breaks in between the sets of exercises and Ashke was reaching and stretching well during the breaks. I decided to do a new exercise with walk transitions, We started with a 10 m canter circle starting at centerline, came back to centerline and did our transition, walked a couple of steps, then picked up the other lead. Another 10m circle and repeat. With walk transitions we got five circles the length of the arena. Then we did the exercise with flying changes. It was a mixed bag. We got the changes but they weren’t as smooth as I had hoped for. It’s hard to say if I was tired or if he was tired. We walked the length of the arena and did a set with the walk changes. Then tried the flying changes one more time. I think I was struggling to control my body. My legs were feeling tired. We finished up with some walk transitions and walked a loop to help him stretch.

He got more Surpass on his leg, a healthy feed of Purina Senior, plus two pounds of carrots. After I had put him away, I grabbed my bridle and headed for the wash rack. When I opened the door to the indoor, Candy was lunging Macho there. Macho is her Western Pleasure stallion that she had gelded last summer in order to be able to take him to more shows. He has the head described in The Black Stallion. It is very nice. He stopped and waited for me to greet him, then gave his mom a look like “see, she did want to admire me”. I scratched his cheeks and his jaw line, commenting for about the one hundredth time how much I love his head. He passes his head onto his offspring, as well as his temperament, and I really like how they move. He’s not small and not built downhill for a QH. Really nice horse. Candy does a great job.

I rinsed off the bridle, scooped up the apples Ashke left in the arena and then cleaned the bridle and tucked everything away. It was a great ride and I look forward to our ride on Sunday.