Mort's eyeball seems to be doing well. We went down to once/day treatments and yesterday was the first day with no treatments. Hopefully when I go out today I'm still greeted by a happy-eyed Mort. He also got his teeth done yesterday. It's looking like he's going to be a horse that needs to be done every six months instead of annually. He's had some really sharp points that have been causing sores. Poor Mort. At least it's a simple fix. I spent my time at the barn giving him a good brushing (in his mind a good brushing is as soft as can be) and washed his tail. After that I let him graze while I gave Emma a bath because her idea of a good time is rolling in fresh horse poop.
I had two fairly good rides on him this weekend. Saturday I forgot that I had taken my saddle pad home to wash so it left me riding bareback. It was a fun ride and we worked a bunch on bend and counter-bend. We'd start one direction on the circle and see how quickly I could change between bends. I slowly shortened it down to changing every quarter of the circle both ways. We worked mainly in trot and only played a bit with canter.
Sunday I started with some fitness work. We took a long walk then I did some trot and canter sets in the field. I don't think there are very many things that are better than cantering a game and responsive thoroughbred. I was smiling every trip. After that he was a bit amped up so trying to reproduce the calm and steady work from the day before would have created an issue. Since he had already worked hard physically I wanted to avoid continuing to work him too hard. I just did some long, sweeping loops at the trot. My goals were to get him straight on the long parts and bending while still keeping his shoulder up in the turns. After I did a few trot/walk/trot transitions to install a better half-halt he finally got it and I called it a day. I admit that it was a touch more than I wanted to do, but Mort didn't seem any worse for wear.
I think today's goal is going to be trying to create that calm, easy, adjustable horse off of our magic circle. He's doing really well with the basics boot camp on our circle, but I'm not getting the same results all of the time off of the circle. This is expected but not something I can ignore. I'll most likely start on the circle then hopefully only go back to it for one or two laps before jumping off of it again. Essentially I've been spending about 80% of "work time" on the circle only coming off of it when he's feeling really good. I also end the off-circle work before things get sticky again to reward my soft, supple pony.
Today I'm going to drop down a level on what I'm asking for but hopefully spend 60-80% of the time off-circle. Of course if things start going down the tubes I can always jump back on the circle to get my bearings. I fully admit that the circle is a tool to help me. It gives me markers and easy, precise goals. I really need a plan as a rider because otherwise I wander about on crooked lines with no plan. Strangely, this has no positive affect on Mort. Today I will try to ride with a plan without a circle. Wish me (and Mort) luck.
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