Ride Recaps

     On Tuesday Mort had just jumped over/through the fence in his turnout when I got there.  I started to clean up the couple of scrapes that he got on his hind legs and noticed that his left front fetlock had some minor swelling and heat starting.  Since he’s Mort with broken front legs I was worried.  I walked him on the lunge and he was totally sound (a bit stiff but that’s fair considering scrapes and the jumping struggle).  We gave him some Bute and wrapped his legs.  Wednesday the swelling was still there, but not worse, and he was still sound.  I decided not to Bute and to turnout (alone).  Thursday evening when I went out the swelling was gone completely.  I decided to hop on him and rode him lightly w/t/c both directions; he was sound.  I’m thinking that it was just a very minor strain that if I had pushed him or not noticed could have turned into something worse.  Luckily I’m paranoid and check his legs over like a crazy person. 

     We had a serious ice storm predicted so the weather kept me away on Friday and Saturday.  More time off isn’t great for his attitude but it probably didn’t hurt his leg. 

     Mr. Mort was full of spitfire Sunday when I went out to ride.  He’d not only had two days off but the horses had been stuck inside a lot more due to the ice storm.   Even asking him to trot got me serious ears back and tail swishing.  Interestingly enough he still moved off of my legs decently (mainly wanted to take the lazy route and just fall out, but still moved off at least). 

     I knew the attitude was due to time off, so I let him move out in a big trot for a while, mainly focusing on getting his shoulders.  Lately I have been trying to get a really straight trot in our warm-up.  I find that it helps him not want to just fall out through the shoulders during the rest of the ride.  I let him have a training level frame during this with moments of stretch—easy work for his brain while we burned some energy and got any kinks out.  A lot of times when he’s had time off that’s about all that I would do during the ride.  However, today I decided that I would push him and see if he stepped up to the challenge mentally. 

     I went for a canter transition out of the walk because it’s easier for me to maintain control of his body when he’s really stiff/bracing.  The first several were very dramatic—even for Mort.  There were bucks and kicks and angry faces.  The first canter each direction I just let him go around on the rail at a decent clip (burn some of that fun energy).  We did a lot of transitions—canter a couple circles then back to trot, back to walk, canter again.  I did them until he gave me a fairly quiet one each way.  We took a walk break. 

     After the break I picked him up for some trot work—I wanted to make sure that he would still be quiet and move off of my leg if we had lost any of that in the canter (which we sometimes do).  He was a bit anticipatory at first (fair enough), but after we did some changes of direction and tempo he really started listening.  I was able to really feel that I could manipulate him in all sorts of ways.  He was really uphill and carrying himself well.  I played with some lengthenings and he didn’t lose his haunches out behind him.  He quietly listened to my leg and seat when we’d change directions and bend.  Very fun trot work.  Just to make sure he’d stick with me giving him a good canter transition from the trot.  The first one (tracking left) was fair.  He picked up the wrong lead on the right.  I went back to trot for a bit and tried again—this time with success.  We did stretchy trot and walked and called it a day.