No Thank You
Last night Pongo gave me a heaping helping of Thanks, but No Thanks.
He started out the ride well, warming up nicely, but noticeably stiffer than he'd been in the past few rides.
As I moved him back into the shoulder fore down the quarter line exercise he was pretty good in the trot, but I just couldnt get him to rock back in the canter. Hmmm...
I got a couple decent canter quarterlines to the left, then headed right. Again, the shoulder fore in the trot was decent, then the canter was so-so. No matter how much I asked, he wouldnt sit down and rock back (at least not nearly as much as he had the night prior).
I decided to just canter him on a 20m circle asking for the softness and be done. About 1/3rd of the way around the circle he grabbed the bit and scooted off...
NAUGHTY!
I hate when you're *almost* done with the ride and then you have to pick a whole new battle with your horse. I get it, he was tired from the lesson. BUT, I cant just let the grab and go thing happen. We did a few more transitions (mostly UGLY) and then called it a night.
I gave him a gram of bute for his aches and put him to bed.
He's supposed to have a trainer ride today, but I think I'm going to cancel and let him have the day off to chill out. Between hauling, the show and the lesson I think we tuckered him out a bit. It's interesting to see how he does so good, then hits the wall. It's going to be a continual thing we have to play with as we deal with his hocks to see what amount of work he can do and what pushes him past him limit.
We'll try again tomorrow.
He started out the ride well, warming up nicely, but noticeably stiffer than he'd been in the past few rides.
As I moved him back into the shoulder fore down the quarter line exercise he was pretty good in the trot, but I just couldnt get him to rock back in the canter. Hmmm...
I got a couple decent canter quarterlines to the left, then headed right. Again, the shoulder fore in the trot was decent, then the canter was so-so. No matter how much I asked, he wouldnt sit down and rock back (at least not nearly as much as he had the night prior).
I decided to just canter him on a 20m circle asking for the softness and be done. About 1/3rd of the way around the circle he grabbed the bit and scooted off...
NAUGHTY!
I hate when you're *almost* done with the ride and then you have to pick a whole new battle with your horse. I get it, he was tired from the lesson. BUT, I cant just let the grab and go thing happen. We did a few more transitions (mostly UGLY) and then called it a night.
I gave him a gram of bute for his aches and put him to bed.
He's supposed to have a trainer ride today, but I think I'm going to cancel and let him have the day off to chill out. Between hauling, the show and the lesson I think we tuckered him out a bit. It's interesting to see how he does so good, then hits the wall. It's going to be a continual thing we have to play with as we deal with his hocks to see what amount of work he can do and what pushes him past him limit.
We'll try again tomorrow.
Pongo! Todays a new day, onto better rides ;)
ReplyDeleteHey! I'm knew to the blog and just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I'm Paola.
ReplyDeletePoor Pongo. If only he knew being a bit tired wasn't an excuse to be naughty!
ReplyDeleteHmmmm... Seems to be going around!
ReplyDeletePS - I nominated you for the Sunshine award!
http://equestriansnob.blogspot.com/2013/10/sunshine-award.html#!/2013/10/sunshine-award.html
Well, not that we ever like them to be naughty... but sometimes "ouch" is a pretty decent excuse. Good thing he has a nice mommy who gave him some bute and a day of rest :)
ReplyDelete