So John is on his way to Florida (slightly jealous!) until next Tuesday, which means all-horses-all-the-time for me this weekend... with some house cleaning thrown in somewhere. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve after on-and-off rain all this week.
Do you know how hard it is to get good work in on a horse that almost has to be ridden daily when it rains every other day? The majority of my rides consist of trying to screw Prophet's head back on straight -- not that he's naughty, he just likes to play after he's had a day or two off and I can't say that I blame him. I would love to do a lot more hacks with him but lately the weather has taken our hack days away!
One day this week I finally gave up on flat-work and let him have a bit of a canter set.
A little background on our canters... The horse raced for 4 years and I have no idea how. I have never had him gallop properly, nor feel like he has the potential to do so. we bounce off invisible barriers from side to side in a flurry of swapping leads and kicking and elbow flaps (how's that for an image?). Luckily running training level hasn't really required that we GALLOP.
I know I keep harping on how different he feels now then he did before his vacation, but let me tell you -- the horse can now gallop!!!! It was one of those sets where I planted my hands on his neck and just roll with it... I could let him out and he's take it, and bring him back and he'd balance, and there were no lead swaps. I never did let him out-out just because I don't trust the footing in that field 100% and didn't want to risk anything, BUT the potential was definitely there!!! So much fun!
Too much fun actually, because I hopped off and nearly layed myself out! Apparently my new diet doesn't like me running around like a yahoo, leaving me a bit lightheaded. I think that it was definitely a sign that I should eat more cookies! :)
Lesson again tomorrow with Steven -- looking forward to that!
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