I've been managing to get three rides in a week for the most part (although might change this week because it's winter tomorrow). Stitch has been so good to ride, which makes up for the twit he's been in the crossties. I think that he picks up on routines far faster than I realize.
Under saddle Stitch has figured out inside leg to outside hand, but is still in the phase where it's not ingrained and if there is something else interesting to look at then he ignores the leg. We're also at the point where if I ride better he goes better (duh), especially when it comes to getting bend. I realized on today's ride that he does much better in the corners if I keep my hands together in front of me and just use my leg to ask for the bend.
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| Baby's first haircut! He stood like a rock for almost the whole clip. He just a bit fussy when the horse that was crosstied next to him left, at which point I only had to finish up by his head. |
He's been doing well with the baby leg yields towards the track. Next I'll start asking him to move towards the inside of the ring instead of falling towards the wall.
Stitch's balance is still not perfect at the trot. He loses his balance when he gets a bit too forward, which happens a lot but I'm not complaining since it took him a while to get there in the beginning. Anything that involves steering has to be slowed down or we can't quite keep our lines.
Most of my rides on Stitch have been by ourselves. Great in some ways, not so good for life experience. I've had a couple of rides over the last couple of weeks that have been with other riders (usually just one) and it's been good for him, although they haven't been the best rides. He's just a little too looky at everyone to be able to carry us forward.
Today's ride was the first time that he tried to stretch a bit forward and down into the contact at trot. We were doing some whoa's and go's on a 3 loop serpentine, coming back to almost walk on the center line. He gave a little feel of trying to reach down, but then we also lost our steering. So I tried it one more time, staying on the track. After one lap with a few almost walk transitions I put my hands forward a little bit, he stayed with me, so I took a leap of faith and fed the reins out a little bit more. I didn't want to let them get too long and dump him on his face, but I had to make sure I gave him a chance to respond. And he did! He dropped his nose and pushed it out. Super happy with that!
We're still working on building up fitness slowly. We are only at 6 x 2 minute trot intervals. I've been seeing good signs that the NQR behind issue is getting better. He is resting his right hind far less than he was, and the tight muscle group over his croup has gotten much softer. He was a little stiffer starting off on today's ride than he has been, it took about a lap to lose the wonky feeling, but it has been much better the last couple of weeks. So I'm hoping we are on the right track and plan to continue doing what we are doing. I'm hoping to start cantering him around Christmas, but the cold weather over the next couple of weeks might put a damper on that. Although the arena is heated, he has to go back outside afterwards, and I don't want to get him too warm before sending him out into -20c (yes, it's going to feel like that overnight already).
It feels like we are finally getting somewhere!
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