This past weekend Calvin and I worked on reinforcing what he has already learned for the most part. Mainly working on one-rein stops, but also learning to keep the same pace at a trot and not take-off both in the arena and on trail.
We started yesterday off right with a delectable meal! Carrots, beets, and beet pulp! He loved the carrots and beet pulp, but didn't so much like the beets themselves for some reason. This picture was taken right before he spit out the beet stems that he's munching.
I have these very fancy boots leftover from my jumping days. He fits in them quite nicely and I can pretend we are going into a jumping class :) Haha but really they just provide good tendon protection just in case. You might be wondering..why don't you trim that fetlock hair near the bottom of his boot? (called feathers) Well, I'll get into this in a second...
Here is Heidi leading the trail, this was the more difficult trail because off the right it was a steep drop-off, and on the left...a mountain. This was our first time going this direction by ourselves, so slightly more things to spook at. We practiced going slowly downhill and walking the entire trail, he wants to trot uphill and downhill(!) because it's easier...but we are learning patience and to pay attention to our footing.
Bath time! See the fetlock hair I was talking about? Well it has a purpose, to keep excess water away from the hoof! As you can see the water is draining off the leg away from his hoof, well we used to shave this with the warmbloods and they had all sorts of problems because of the excess moisture. I have to admit though, having a clean shaven leg does look better, but hey why mess with mother nature.
Wet donkey boy! This wasn't his first bath ever, but first bath since I have owned him. He did really well and acted as though he's been doing this for years. I was even able to spray his face and he just lowered it and accepted the water...basically better than any horse I've owned!
All dry! Much better looking too, as this ground is flat and he's all shiny.
I let him graze freely while drying, I figured worst case he'd run about 10 steps and start eating again, but he stayed happily eating the entire time. Also he learned that if he stepped on the lead rope, that he was doing this to himself and not to panic. He maybe panicked twice and then learned that it was actually him that was causing the pull.
Oh but of course the minute I put him back in the pasture he rolls in the dirt. Rolling isn't bad though, it actually itches their skin and provides natural sunscreen. He stayed posing like this for 10 minutes, so handsome!
We practiced lunging a bit again today. Since he had a hard 3 days of riding Fri, Sat, & Sun I figured today we would just do groundwork. In preparation for a saddle, I wanted to work on worst-case scenario emergencies. Sometimes when you don't tighten up your girth tightly, the saddle can fall to the side, or worse, under their belly! This can frighten a horse into taking off and hurting your saddle or worse, himself. Therefore, we practiced bareback pad slipping today!
"um...mom...this isn't how this thing is supposed to go on!" He stopped on his own and gave me this look, smart boy!
Slippage on the other side, he stopped again when this one slipped.
Hopefully this will prevent any panicking if the actual saddle slips, hopefully it won't, but **** happens so it's better to be safe. He was a very good boy and tolerated this exercise very well!
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