On a roll

The boys were really awesome this week. As I mentioned in my last post, since it was too cold to ride on Tuesday, I recruited Jessica to ride P on Wednesday while I rode Stampede. Jessica decided to ride P bareback and he was trucking around and feeling good. Stampede was a bit up since he had an extra day off, but he felt great and I always enjoy a forward ride as long as he’s civilized about it. Added in some of our infamous canter figure 8’s, mixing it up between holding for a counter canter and putting in flying changes.

Thursday I rode Stampede again. Ended up in the ring alone, which was nice. He was still pretty forward. I was able to add in some more circles and loops and such since I was alone and then did our figure 8’s but with some simple changes, coming down to the walk each time.

Walking around the ring alone

Friday night I rode P. He was pretty hyper. I described him as feeling like he was 6 again. I had a great ride though, he was responsive and felt nice and loose in his gaits. I feel like the combo of Cosequin and Ichon is pretty awesome for him, because this can’t be a fluke!

P cleaning up the scraps after the barn got new hay in

Saturday was lesson day. While Stampede was being good, I didn’t get to enjoy the same rides I had earlier in the week because there were lots of horses in the ring. Stampede was constantly getting annoyed with some horse in his personal space, which gets old fast. I’m actually thinking about not lessoning on Saturdays for a while. Of course as soon as I stop the lesson will shrink to a normal size again and I’ll be upset I’m not in it. Plus it’s part of my board so I just lose out if I don’t do it. Sigh. Stampede and I did jump a bit since the Tuesday lesson forecasted high is 0, meaning it will most likely be cancelled. He was jumping nice and soft, so I can’t complain there. I also think the Ichon is helping him a lot. It certainly can’t replace his back injections, but he is definitely feeling better.

Oh, and I picked up Stampede’s cooler from the embroidery place on the way to my lesson!

Awesome!

Jessica rode P in the lesson, where trainer described him as looking like he’s 5. He was ready to go the whole time and happy to be part of the action.

Today I rode P. That’s right, third day in a row, and he was still ready for action. I decided to ride him again since riding will probably not be happening Monday or Tuesday with the weather. He was great. It’s really nice that he feels so good and I don’t have to push him forward all the time.

It was also Stampede lunging day. He was surprisingly up, so we worked for a while. Took him a while to relax and stretch his back like I wanted, but he finally got the ants out of his pants and gave me some beautiful looking trot and canter.

About to go eat some soup that’s been in the crockpot all day then head to the barn for night hay and water in the cold. Hope everyone is staying warm in the frozen parts of the country!