Unorganized Update

A very quick and poorly laid-out update on the last week with Mort. Mort has been sound all week. We did our first w/t/c ride last Sunday and he felt great. He has continued to feel totally sound all week. I kept the first few rides pretty easy as 2 weeks off plus 1 week of walk means that we lost some of our fitness. We're also a touch rusty on our training. I'm already feeling that come back though, so I'm sure we'll be back on track soon. I'm just so happy that he's sound and comfortable again. He's also just started his new supplement regime, so hopefully the added joint support will do the trick to prolong the next injection. Mort and I also went on our first off-property adventure this weekend. All the horses were turned out during the fireworks last week, but the neighbors put on a ridiculously extravagant show right next to the barn, so the barn owner moves them to another farm for the night. It makes sure the horses don't think they're in a war zone and it was a great opportunity to get Mort out without show stress. He was a perfect gentleman. He loaded to leave with no issues other than a few moments hesitation. We practiced loading that afternoon after our ride with similar results. Then he loaded up to go home on Sunday with no real issues. I'm so happy with how far his confidence has come--especially on the trailer with the steepest ramp! Mort settled into his stall in all of five minutes. He would call back to the other horses calling occasionally, but he was eating and relaxing through it all. He was calm and easy going for leading and grooming. He was a bit uncertain about the wash rack on Saturday, but walked right in on Sunday. We rode in a busy arena on Saturday. Mort wanted to be a bit glued to his new girlfriend, but other than that he was calm and behaved. We're still not back to where we were before his lameness, but we're getting there. He was well-behaved and we were able to start off on a loose rein immediately. Sunday, I opted for a lesson. Everyone has been telling me how great the instructor at this barn is (and it's the barn owner's regular instructor). We were there anyway. And I figured it would be a better ride if Mort wasn't riding at the same time as his girlfriend. It was a hectic arena at first, but did quiet down and in the end we had the place to ourselves. I was a bit nervous to lesson with someone new since my last lesson with someone other than my regular instructor was so "bleh". But this was a dressage instructor and she had glowing reviews. She let us do our own thing for our warm-up, so I was able to canter him before getting to the real work. With it being crowded, it wasn't quite our normal warm-up, but it sufficed. I told her we were somewhere between first and second with the goal of showing second by this fall. We played with some shoulder-in. She caught me on not riding accurately (both corners and circles). This is definitely a trap that I've allowed myself to fall into with the giant 150 x 250 arena at the barn. It has no fences and no corners so I don't ride accurately. I'm going to try to set up some poles as corners this week to work on that some. Overall, his shoulder-in was fine once I kept him on the rain with half-halts on the outside rein. Then she asked about haunches-in. I told her that we'd been working on them in the walk, but hadn't tackled them beyond that. We started in the walk and she fixed some of where I was placing his front end. We went back and forth in my body position from straight to haunches-in to see how Mort reacted. He was good, if a bit tight in the jaw and struggling with bend. He certainly did his best though. If I let him get away with a tiny little sitting trot, we could keep the haunches-in OK. When I asked for a bigger trot, things got less smooth. So I need to experiment with that some. I'm not sure why I had been putting off doing it in trot, but I'm glad she asked us to do it. We finally touched a bit on canter transitions. He's often a bit behind my leg for these, so she had us experiment with leg yielding in on a circle, back out, then asking for the canter. Our final canter transition was a lot smoother than normal, so that's homework as well. She said to try it in both walk and trot and I should get good results. Other than that, she reminded me a few times to keep myself centered and aligned. Those are always good reminders and something that is a constant work-in-progress. She also said that Mort needed to be rounder. He definitely was tighter in the jaw than we had been before our time off, so I think that will come back with time and fitness. Overall I was really happy with Mort's effort. I was happy with the things she said during our lesson. I think I'll plan to join the barn owner for another adventure up there sometime. She goes just about every week, so it should be easy to tag along on one of the trips. Mort was a champ. I am so happy he is back to his steady self. I'm so happy that I moved him, even though the commute sucks. He was calm enough that I could have had Steven handle him and that's always the goal for my horse's behavior. Now we get back into shape mentally and physically. I get another couple lessons with my instructor. I take Mort for another lesson with this instructor to get him off property again. Then hopefully this fall we'll be ready to rock-and-roll second level.