Weekend Updates on a Wednesday

The weather this weekend was wonderful, so I had two full days of barn time. Mort was pretty much back to his normal self with only a little extra added sass that’s to be expected with so much time off.

Saturday was an easy ride. I mainly just worked on getting him straight and calm. I had a couple of exciting canter transitions but nothing outrageous. Once he was going like a gentleman I called it quits. I figured he was sore from his craziness Friday on the lunge line and short happy rides are always better than long tiring ones. We ended the ride with a walk along the gravel road. We probably only went a mile or so, but it was fun to be out there with my horse and pup enjoying the warmer weather.

Sunday was even warmer, and Mort was happy to walk on a loose rein from the moment I got on him. He still had a little sass in some of the canter transitions but that’s not unusual for us a lot of the time anyway. Other than that, he was really fun to ride. He was forward but listening. I need to sharpen up the lateral stuff after all of our time off and the time before that just spent goofing around. That will most likely be my project over the next couple of weeks. I want to get him sharper sideways and get his canter transitions better. I also have some plans to do a little bit of counter canter work to help strengthen that hind end again.

After my ride yesterday, I did some much-needed catching up on other barn activities. I deep-cleaned my bridle and girth. I’m hoping to get to my saddle sometime this week, but it’ll depend on how long this furlough lasts. I pulled his mane and clipped his bridle path so he doesn’t look like a hobo anymore.

A lot of my goals for the winter have had to go on hold with the ulcer, moving, and weather. One side of this is kinda disappointing but that is life with horses. We’ll see how long it takes us to get back in shape and start working on goals again. At least he and I have gotten time to enjoy each other with all the trail riding and general hanging out. That’s never a bad thing to do with your horse.