Ride #7 with Lesson

So, when we last left our intrepid heroes, Ashke was head bobbing lame at the trot. Unable to horse at all, and pissed as shit at me. I spent a lot of time between Monday night and Wednesday night thinking about the issue. There was no true swelling that I could find in legs or chest. There was a spot that was sore to the touch on Monday, right where the girth and his front left leg connected, which he wanted rubbed. I wondered if it was his hocks (which we will have done in February - I talked to Amanda about scheduling his at the same time she gets Laz done) beginning to bother him. I talked to Chris and Saiph about all of the above possibilities. Then it hit me: I had made an equipment change between Saturday and Sunday.

Doh!!

See, I’ve been riding him in a Reinsman fleece lined western cinch and although it has worked just fine, I have been thinking about purchasing a TSF western girth for the long haul (the Reinsman is nylon over fleece and I wanted something 1) in brown to be matchy-matchy and 2) something with leather to make it easier to keep clean in the long run). Having been using a TSF girth for the Alta for almost four years and knowing how much he liked the girth, it seemed like a no brainer to order one for the western saddle. It was delivered on Saturday and I tried it for the first time on Sunday. With two rides under our belt in the new cinch, and both of those rides resulted in the bad behavior and subsequent lameness, it seemed like a viable theory.

When I got to the barn he greeted me with a bellowing whinny and was very happy to have carrots shoved in his face. I pulled him out and stripped off the blanket, then threw him on the lunge line. I think this was the first time I have lunged him in over a year. It’s just not something either of us really enjoys. He walked a couple of steps, which looked fine, then pushed forward into a nice, even trot. Rain’s rider had stopped to watch and said “he looks good there”.  He did look normal for him. We reversed direction and he was solid and rhythmic in the other direction as well. 

I took him in and groomed, then saddled him with the Reinsman cinch. I wasn’t even going to try the TSF girth again. Twice was enough. When I swung on and we moved off from the mounting block, he was forward and eager, moving into a trot with no urging, and I gave a huge sigh of relief that he wasn’t demonstrating any of his previous behavior. There was a touch of attitude (PTSD) when we went the other way, but I calmed him and told him it was okay, and sure enough, I could feel his whole body relax into the trot when there was no pain. 

I apologized to him for being such a stupid human. He thanked me for figuring it out and changing back to the option that didn’t hurt. I’m not sure why that cinch was such an issue, but it definitely was the culprit. It will go back to TSF today. 

We started with shoulder in and then haunches in, doing our stretches. We did some leg yields where we really worked on keeping him straight. The exercise was to leg yield for three or four steps, then move forward straight for the same number of strides, then leg yield again. We did that in both directions until he was moving in the direction I asked, whether straight forward or sideways, at the slightest touch of leg and shift of weight. 

We tried to work on canter-walk-canter serpentines, which then broiled over into “just go straight without trying to turn your body into a pretzel” conversation. I have been using the verbal cue of “hold” or saying not yet, when doing the prep work for a flying change, because home-boy doesn’t want to wait for my cue. We did a lot of riding up and down the long side of the arena, waiting for him to just move straight. I kept saying “we aren’t going to do a change if your body isn’t straight”. It wasn’t real fun, but I have to be very adamant that he listen and not just throw two tempos where ever the hell he thinks I might possibly need one. He also needs to figure out the difference in asking for bend and asking for a change. Any change in pressure from my inside leg and he is looking to give me a change. It was a hard piece of riding, but we finally got two really nice changes at the end of a long straight canter. And by straight, I mean not throwing his hips to the inside of the circle in a pronounced haunches in.

We took a bit of a break and then worked on transitions within the canter off my legs. We did medium canter to collected canter to the schooling canter that comes right before a canter pirouette. Amanda wants me to work on transitions in the canter to the walk through the schooling canter. It will help develop the canter we need to be fluid and smooth in the single and double slalom. His transitions off that schooling canter were soft and uphill, since he was so collected behind. It was a nice feel.

Another walk break and then we did the same thing with the trot. The long side of the arena was used for the medium trot and then I collected and slowed his trot all from my legs around the short sides. Amanda said we were getting half steps, and when we reached that point I was to ask for a walk. Once again, his transition was smooth and uphill. 

That was the final thing we worked on. I need to work on both the canter transitions within the gait and the same with the trot. My legs were shaking and felt weak when I got off, but I was pretty happy with our progress.