Stall Rest

I am on stall rest this week. 

I hate stall rest. For me and for the horses.

I made it out to the barn on Sunday with my mom helping me by doing all the horse leading. My leg wasn't feeling too bad, the knee was mostly fine and the cramp in my calf felt better with some movement. I was out there for at most 1.5 hours, and otherwise spent the day sitting on my butt. 

Stitch is looking mighty fine at the moment.

Come Monday morning, the cramp was fully back, and maybe even a little worse, so I took myself to a walk-in clinic to see a doctor.

I got my hand slapped. 

Basically, I sprained both my knee and my calf. The knee doesn't appear to have suffered any significant damage, there is no pain in it, just weakness. He was much more concerned about potential compartment syndrome in my calf. 

So I am to do as little walking as possible for three days, keep my leg up, ice it a whole bunch, and take a stronger anti-inflammatory for 5 days (with a refill if needed). When I go back to work next week I need to try to ice it every hour, and I'm not supposed to add additional walking until the following week. Then, I can decide about physio.

So yeah, not going to be riding for a bit.

Oh well, fall is always my favorite time to ride.

I'll come up with a plan for Stitch next week. I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get some strength back that I would feel comfortable doing much while attached to him (like lunging or long lining). His group goes out on grass in July and I'd like to find something I can do to keep him moving.

In Which Stitch Gets Another Vacation

 Everything worked out this week and I managed to get a few rides on Stitch. 

After his little vacation his balance isn't feeling as good. Not sure if it is because of his growth (which wasn't really that much, though he's starting to fill out now), or lack of strength, but I figure our 2-3 days a week of walk/trot won't be any issue.  The plan was to be able to start cantering in June, but there's been a bit of a curveball thrown into my plans.

I kinda, sorta, had my first fall off of Stitch. 

Really, it was more of an unplanned bail. 

But, it kinda messed up my leg. I definitely won't be riding for a bit. 

The ride itself was fine - his balance at the trot was getting better through the ride with lots of easy changes of direction.

Someone had left the exercise ball on the arena surface before I entered the arena, and I was letting Stitch kick it during our walk breaks. He's done it lots of times when I was on the ground; this was the first time we were doing it under saddle. He seemed to enjoy it, there were lots of good kicks.

I presented him to the ball on what was going to legitimately be the last time before hopping off.  Instead of kicking the ball, he decided to kneel on it. With both front legs. In a very unbalanced fashion.

Stitch's front end disappeared in front of me. There was a moment of is he going to go down all the way, at which point the possibility of me getting chucked over his head and getting badly hurt became likely, so I opted to quickly bail off the left side of him.

Because he was basically standing still, for a moment I thought I was going to stick the landing - until I felt my right knee pop while still in the air. Out of the corner of my eye that leg seemed to bend from the knee at an angle it isn't supposed to bend. 

I think I hit the ground first with my left leg and then fell back mostly on my butt and immediately said "I've hurt my knee".

Much thanks to the multiple people who were at the barn that night and took care of my horse (who may have been slightly traumatised by this) and helped me through my body's involuntary reaction of wanting to pass out or vomit that always happens when I have a sudden sharp pain. Once that cleared I hobbled around the barn with an ice boot wrapped around my leg until my parents came to drive me and my car home. I probably could have driven, but I knew it would stiffen up by the time I made it back into the city and didn't want to risk not being able to move it quickly to brake if needed.

I'm quite certain it's just a sprained knee, and honestly don't even think it's that bad. There's actually very little pain in the knee for the most part - unless I take a wonky step on an uneven surface. The biggest problem today (Saturday, it happened Thursday evening) is that everything else in my leg has tightened up, and I have a giant knot in my calf that tightens up every time I sit down and makes walking very uncomfortable. 

I had to work on Friday, and honestly spent too much time on my feet, which is probably part of the reason it's so tight today, but now I'm off for the next week so can rest it - though I have many things I need to get done. I was planning on trailering Stitch over to the vet clinic on Wednesday to get his teeth floated, but if there isn't significant improvement by Monday I might have to delay it. He's not a perfect loader yet so if I have no strength in my leg I might get into some trouble. Not to mention the drive, which would mean sitting for about 2.5 hours and stiffening up each time. 

The last time I sprained my knee, about 12-15 years ago from falling off Phantom twice over the same jump at a clinic, I was back in the saddle a week later - and realized right away it was the wrong decision. I think I tried again another week later, and then ended up having a bit of a forced break when my dad ended up in hospital for a week, so it was really at least three weeks before I was able to ride - on a reliable, broke horse. Which does not describe Stitch. (Reliable, yes - he's been good, but nowhere near steady enough at the moment.)

So far, I don't think this sprain is as bad as that one was, but the next few days will tell. In the meantime, my massage gun, and the tens machine and diclofenac that I had gotten for last year's torn rotator cuff will be getting lots of use. 

And Stitch will be getting fat.

It Didn't Happen

In what should be no surprise at all, I did not manage to get my horse ridden this weekend. 

I legitimately tried - I was dressed, had grabbed half of my tack with my grooming kit, brought Stitch in and inspected his sides for the new bites that showed up overnight - and initially missed the one on his back. Right where the saddle would end. Which was tender to pressure.

I found it as I was grooming, thankfully well before I threw a saddle on. 

Instead, we worked on lining up at the mounting block as a refresher, went for a walk around the pond (during which I almost died when he spooked at ducks that flew off right next to us), and then I needed to stay inside because the sun came out and it got hot which I wasn't dressed for so Stitch got his mane tidied up.

Stitch recovered quickly from the duck incident. My foot, not so much.

The hope is that 48 hours will be enough time for Stitch to become non-reactive to the scrape so that I can try again on Monday. If he happens to come in with more marks on his back, his suit of armor will have to go on. I try to keep the fly sheet off until the flies actually get bad, which is usually more like July, but am willing to make him wear it earlier if needed.

The Last Month

Yet again, I've fallen off the blog-wagon. Not that there is much to blog about. 

Stitch has been, for the most part, on vacation for almost a month. The first couple weeks weren't planned as such - he got his vaccinations and had a bit of a lump on his neck, then the next week I think my body was fighting off something because I was absolutely exhausted all week and ended up with a hoarse voice at the end.

Turns out my horse doesn't mind getting his feet wet if it's his idea and not mine.

That weekend I noticed the swoop that his back gets when he's in a growth spurt. When I went out to catch him the next day and saw a horse across the field and thought to myself  "whose horse has such a pointy butt" and realized it was mine I decided he could have a couple more weeks off. 

I swear his back changed shape every day over a couple of weeks.

His butt is looking a bit less swoopy, but now his shoulders are looking like they're jammed up against his withers. Last week, on the lunge, his canter was the chest down quarter horse version, a couple of days later it was much better balanced. One thing that has changed of late is that he has been a bit tougher to get the right lead on the lunge, which has always been his stronger side. I'm trying very hard to not go all "my baby horse is permanently broken" about it. 

I got myself a 3d printer for Christmas. This magnet, which started as a picture of Stitch that I had Chat GPT make into a Pixar movie scene, is on the white board of my tack locker.

Do you see the resemblance?

Good news is that as of this week his balance has gotten better and he can quite capably gallop a balanced circle on the wrong lead on the lunge. He even threw in a couple of changes to get on the right one, before tucking his butt underneath him and showing that he might actually have some athletic moves in him. Oh yay.

In an effort to work on Stitch's posture I've been working with the Surefoot pads with him. They aren't new to him, I've introduced them to him many times over the last year, but he's never wanted to have anything to do with them. You would think his feet have eyes in them based on how adept he is on not actually placing his foot on the pad when I put his foot down.

For some reason though, the last couple of weeks he's changed and is enjoying them. Not to the extent that Phantom and Cisco did, but he's letting me place his foot on a pad and has a few moments per session of allowing himself to have all the feels. I've noticed that he is much more comfortable standing with the left front on a pad than the right, and has a hard time staying on the right front if I pick up any other foot. Don't know what it means, just something to note.

Feeling very zen. Maybe the lines in the sand are helping?

Something else we've been working on is standing untied in the crosstie area. At the beginning of winter, my goal for the season was to work on ground tying with him. But then we moved to the new barn, and he had that period of barging out of the crossties, so that kind of got put aside. But Stitch has been much better of late - still paws, but much less, and has been quite good about standing in the area and waiting when I unclip the ties. 

This will be a process. I've discovered that he initially is good, but then he looks for something to do. I'm having the same problem under saddle with him when practicing parking. He'll stand nicely for a few seconds, then starts looking back at me like he's saying "helloooo - why aren't we doing something? We should be doing something." Very ADHD brain. 

The horses will move onto grass in July. I'm starting to do some hand grazing in preparation. I hate hand grazing - it's one of my least favourite horse things to do. 

The crossties have a rubber mat in the stall area, then a small gap of cement, then there's another mat in the aisle in front. The plan is that he has to keep his toes on the mat in the stall. He's kind of got the idea, and is now sometimes self-correcting with a voice aid from me if his toe steps off the mat, but it's hard for a busy brain to not let the feet move. I'm not expecting miracles and thinking I'll be able to leave him untied while I run to the washroom or anything, I just want to be able to turn my back for a few seconds to grab something across the aisle and not have to go running after my horse. 

I'm hoping to hop back on him this weekend and do a few more weeks of slow work until the next growth spurt hits. He's currently 15.1 1/2 in front and 15.2 behind, but doesn't turn four until the end of July, so I fully expect he'll get to his string test height of 15.3hh - I very much hope he stops there!

Gotcha Day

I'm super behind in posting about my last couple of rides (I don't want to have to edit video), but yesterday was Stitch's 1-year Gotcha Day!

Of course, I totally forgot about it until I was turning him out, and as soon as he realized that the candy machine was out of candy he wandered away from me and I couldn't get any pics.

It's been a year of new beginnings - a new horse who I'm starting from scratch, first rides, and a new barn that we call home.

The baby horse on the day I went out to view him.

Stitch has been a pleasure to work with - other than that one weekend in February we don't talk about. 

The first new blanket that I bought for him. It's a 69" that was done up as small as I could make it. He still can wear it, done up as big as I can make it - his butt peeks out a bit but I'm determined to get my money out of it! 

He has proven to be a willing, smart, and sweet horse who is constantly complimented by everyone at the barn. 

First time lunged with a saddle in August 2024.

I've learned that food is his favourite thing - any and all food - and that getting fed appears to be the highlight of his day. It is also likely the reason that he paws (which has gotten significantly better, but it's still there). His second favourite thing these days appears to be the black barn cat Dexter, who has been in the arena quite a bit recently and Stitch goes all stalker mode when he sees him.

October 2024, when I decided it was time to give him the winter off to grow since his butt had shot up.

So far, the only things I know he dislikes are puddles, getting hosed off, and having his temperature taken. He was good with that one last summer but not so good after his strangles vaccines in December. I'm waiting for a much warmer day to tackle the wash rack at the new barn.

First ride out of the arena in September 2024.

This is hopefully the first of many years in our journey together, with many more firsts to experience together.

Stitch today, taken out in the field while waiting for the vet to show up to give him his vaccination. Can't wait until his red summer coat is back.

Baby Brain Blown

With spring now being here (this week, at least), a big priority has been to get Stitch out of the arena. There aren't as many trail areas as I had hoped at the new barn, but there are a couple of empty fields that horses will move to for the summer that we can ride in until then, and a bigger field at the back that might get cows on it to graze it down. Then, in the fall once the crops are off, the neighbour gives us access to his fields. 

We are also about a seven-minute drive from a place that has a cross-country course that we could pay to ride around, and a half-hour drive to a shared use recreation area that has trails for horses. 

Before I make any plans to take my horse off the property, I'd like to be fairly confident of not dying on the property. 

It cools off quite quickly in the evenings at this time of year, so a beautiful sunny day does not mean you'll be able to skip the winter coat after dinner, and all too often mid-day plans of riding outside are changed by the time I actually get on the horse in the evening.

Stitch is currently in his moth-eaten shedding stage of spring while his dark winter hair slowly give way to his red summer hair.

Wednesday worked out though!

I started the ride in the arena, which was its own challenge - the overhead door was open. Not at the end, but half-way down one side. Stitch gawked at the outside every time we passed it, but surprisingly didn't really try to exit. He also didn't come close to scraping my leg off on the kick boards after the open area of the door, which I was quite concerned would be a problem.

We did a bit of trot in a busy arena (3 riders) with me trying to find some spaces to do some turning. He was a little looky about the horse that was doing a bunch of cantering, but with everything going on he wasn't too bad.  

Eventually, we wandered out, keeping to the paths around the turnout areas and driveways. 

I have done a bunch of leading Stitch all over the yard in-hand without issue, but apparently it's a different story when Mommy isn't in front. The good news is that he's more of the stop and stare kind of horse, and if I give him a moment he'll keep going. 

I was suprised at how looky he was for the first bit. He stopped a couple of times by the bleachers for the outdoor ring, though I wasn't really sure what he was looking at. 

The first baby brain explosion happened when we were headed towards the pond (once it dries up we are able to ride around it in summer, but we were nowhere near the side of it on this day) and some ducks came in for a landing. That was a stop and stare in llama mode. When I finally got him to start moving his feet again, he turned into a giant puddle - it was a whole two hooves wide - that he was all oh no about. This horse is not going to be an eventer - he has hated puddles since the day I got him.

Got past that, then went down the lane between some turnouts. The horse I knew could be silly wasn't in his paddock, so I thought it would be smooth sailing, but nope, Stitch saw something else move and spun to the right, towards another lane of turnouts, but also into some muddy footing, which he instantly regretted. He was very much "I don't know where to go".

Thankfully, he heeded my guidance and we didn't end up in the ditch. We then went down the driveway towards the road, and he finally started to relax. From there we back-tracked the first part of the ride (he still stared at the ducks), and continued past the field that he lives in. By this point he was able to march along with a long low neck, though I definitely wasn't given him overly long reins!

I honestly didn't think he'd be as spooky as he was, but overall he settled quickly, so it was still a win in my book. The first ride outside of the season for any horse tends to be more exciting than it should, whether they are a baby or not. 

I think they got the outdoor arenas harrowed, so hopefully we'll be able to get outside for a proper ride soon - but the snow and rain needs to stay away!

The Circle of Ease

On Sunday night I had the arena to myself and I really wanted to be able to focus on working on steering. 

I set up the classic exercise of 2 poles on a circle (at E & B) and pylons along the center line. I knew that Stitch really likes doing poles, but I didn't realize how much he likes pylons - by which I mean he likes to eat them. As soon as I would put one down, he'd have it in his mouth. He even tried to reach down and snatch one the first time we walked through them under saddle.

The stretch goal for the ride was to be able to do the poles/pylon circle at a trot. I honestly didn't think we'd manage it and had plans to just use the poles/pylons individually as something to aim for in our turns. 

Once Stitch got going, which took a couple of minutes because he had to deal with the justifiable distraction of his favourite kitty walking through the arena, his steering felt pretty good. It usually gets better as the ride progresses, but this night it felt good from the get-go.

When you are so distracted by the kitty that you forget you have feet.

So we tried the exercise. And in what I'm learning to be Stitch fashion, he nailed it.

Yes, I had to use a bit more inside rein than ideal. He isn't looking for the circle yet, and doesn't move reliably off my legs, so I had way more feel than I'd like to have on my inside rein. It doesn't look that bad on the video though - by no means was his nose cranked around the turns. 

I think the exercise worked well for him in that he seemed to start to look ahead in the turns and get the idea of continuing on the circle. We'll definitely revisit it soon!

We just did it once each way, because when you do it that well the first time, there's no need at this age to drill it. It was also the first warm day of the year and homeboy was already pretty sweaty after a little bit of work. 

I'm going to have to start going through some books and finding some new exercises to try!

Ride #31

I was finally feeling better after the previous week's head cold so I prepped Stitch for his first ride in almost two weeks (which was planned to be on Monday) by letting him loose in the arena on Sunday to get those crazy young horse antics out of his system.

He just wanted to stand and cuddle a kitty.

My kind of guy.

Dexter, the black panther barn kitty, was hanging out on one of the kickwalls in the arena when we went in. Stitch immediately noticed him and took every opportunity he could to just hang out with him. Dexter doesn't really love the horses, but does love being held by a human, and he was a little put out with the fact that Stitch kept parking himself between the kitty and the human and was making it difficult for the kitty to get into a position that he could be picked up.

Dexter was desperately trying to figure out how to get to me on the other side of the horse. He refused to go over the horse. 

Stitch did have to go for a couple of canters, but they weren't particularly energetic, so I gave up sooner than planned. Would that come back to bite me in the butt once said butt was in the saddle the next day?

Initially, I wasn't quite sure. 

Stitch was a little sticky about walking forward when I first hopped on. It was probably something that you wouldn't see, but I definitely felt. The arena was the busiest it's been on my ride since last fall, with three other horses in the arena. One was finishing her lesson so left soon after I got on, which left one person having a flat lesson and another person riding her rather hot TB.

It took a good seven or eight minutes before Stitch started to walk forward and relax. There were a couple of moments when a horse passed him and I felt him gather himself up like he was thinking of going with them, but it never went beyond that.

In trying to stay out of the way of the person having the lesson, I didn't get to do as much steering off the track as I would have liked. We had a couple of icky circles at the beginning of the trot, and then a couple of better ones as he got going. Those were probably all that we did for circles. But we did try some baby leg yields at the trot - and he got them! Just a couple of steps towards the track, really good off the left leg, a little less good off the right one. We ended the ride there. 

There is a possibility that Stitch is going through another growth spurt. He's lost a little bit of weight over the last couple of weeks, which seems to be the precursor to his butt shooting up, and after taking his blanket off this weekend, yeah, I think his butt shot up. If it seems to affect his balance he'll go on vacation again for a few weeks. I'm going to have to measure his butt - I can't see over the top of it anymore!

The Week That Wasn't

The plan is to ride Stitch three times a week, but I don't think we've managed to hit that goal yet. 

We got two rides in last week - Tuesday's ride was really good in learning how to rebalance the trot, which was the goal, but we lost our ability to do a circle. There was another person riding with us, which hasn't happened a lot so far this year, and there were moments that Stitch was definitely distracted by the pinto dressage pony, but overall I was really happy with how he listened to my aids. 

And then I woke up on Saturday morning with the plague. I finally succumbed to one of the many bugs going around, and it took until Thursday to feel mostly human. Just in time for a spring snowstorm that is continuing through Friday morning, when I am supposed to be at the barn for my farrier appointment at 8am. 

My farrier had messaged me Thursday morning to confirm we were still a go and I said yes unless I end up in a ditch and she said we can reschedule if the roads are terrible in the morning. I stressed about it all evening after reading about how bad the roads were for peoples drives home from work (and about whether my car would get stuck in my alley before even making it to the main road) and sent her a message to reschedule before I went to bed. Stitch is only on six weeks so I have a little bit of leeway.

I'm betting the cobra chickens are regretting coming north so soon.

Sadly, the snow is going to stick around for a few days since the temperatures are going to be below freezing until Monday.

Back to a heavyweight blanket for a night.

We'll see what roads are like over the weekend and hopefully manage to finally get three rides in next week. 

In the meantime, Stitch got his first taste of a donut (vanilla icing with sprinkles and strawberry filling). Guess what he's getting for his birthday!

Ride #29

I didn't ride all week, due to feeling crappy for a couple of days followed by snow/freezing temperatures. Stitch was bundled up again in his warm jammies for a couple of days, but will hopefully be able to be nekkid on Monday or Tuesday. We're not out of the woods for snow - my birthday is early in April and we always have snow after my birthday, but that should be the last of the stupid cold for the season. Fingers crossed.

When I went out on Wednesday night to bring him in and put his snowsuit on, he was happily playing bitey face with his BFF out in the field, which was followed by galloping off with bucks and farts, then the stare into the distance with his tail up in the air and the dragon snort. 

I thought he might be a twit to bring in, but he surprised me and walked very calmly next to me. We went straight into the arena as it was empty and he was given a chance to get the last of his sillies out before I put him in the crossties. He is playing much more in the arena when given the chance, lots of bucks and farts and diving into a change of direction last minute. 

Which he did none of on Friday night when I brought him in. I was planning to ride on Saturday and didn't want to die, so he got let loose on Friday, but it only took a couple of minutes to get the little bit of sass out of him. 

And then Saturday came, and it was cold, and I had family dinner plans, and I didn't want to feel chilled all evening, so I didn't get out to the barn. Which meant that on Sunday, when I did ride, I wasn't too sure what I was going to get.

The sass was definitely in there. Stitch was a little looky at a couple of corners that to me didn't seem to have changed when we walked in the beginning - by which I mean he took a good look at them but kept walking past them. But that was about the extent of it. 

For this ride, he was forward at the trot right off the bat. He wasn't, however, feeling very balanced. So I actually slowed him down a bit in order to gain some balance. For the most part he was thinking forward though, not asking to slow down so much, mostly when we had steering issues.

Our 20m circles were terrible - a week off did nothing initially for our steering. So it's the perfect time to try a 3 loop serpentine, right?

The first go ended up being a figure 8 - the two circles kind. I tried to turn and when we ended up heading towards E I knew I couldn't save it for the serpentine. So we did a couple of figure 8's first, which worked out quite nicely. Stitch was listening and waiting for my input as to where we were going. I also changed how I asked him to turn, using an indirect rein instead of an open rein - and what do you know, he bent nicely and stayed much better on the desired path.

On the next serpentine attempt, I figured that I would have to think about turning much earlier to make it happen. Again, I kept my hands close together and used an indirect rein before turning, and ended up having some lovely turns. Guess it's time to start riding him like he's a big boy now!

Stitch also gave me a lovely feeling as we started the serpentine of balancing the trot coming out of the corner at C. He responds well to me closing my thighs to slow down, but it's been more slam on the brakes kind of slowing down. This time, I put my lower leg on at the same time, and he responded by rebalancing himself and still going forward, and it set us up for a great turn off of the wall. 

So, yeah, it looks like I have to remember how to ride properly again!

Adjusting the balance in the trot will be our goal for the next few rides. By no means am I asking for anything crazy - no collection here - just to be able to rebalance before turns and transitions. Exercises like the serpentines will help with this quite a bit, I just have to remember to ask for it!

Auspicious Beginnings

Well, my visit to the barn on Sunday didn't start very well.

Parked, got my stuff out of the car and walked to the barn, pause - what is that sound?

Oh, that's the sound of all the air escaping my tire. 

I think I see the problem. 

I really do have bad luck with tires. Which means I'm well versed on how to remove a tire and don't get stressed over it anymore. It could have been worse - it was only snowing/sleeting a little bit, but right around freezing. I'd rather that than having to do it (again) in -25 weather. 

So that got dealt with, then I trudged out to the furthest corner of the field to catch my horse. Like, 10 feet away from the fence line, where the horses haven't been all winter so there is still a whole bunch of snow that doesn't have any path going through it. Snow that is slightly deeper than ankle height, which I had to trudge through in my ankle-height boots. My feet were damp for the rest of the night. 

I went out on Saturday afternoon, which was beautiful and sunny, and Stitch and two other bay boys were all lined up having a snooze in the sun.

They did an excellent job of lining up in a straight line.

The plan for this ride was to do a little trot course of poles. Stitch really likes doing poles, and we did it a few times in the fall at the old barn. I was hoping that this would give him some incentive to really trot forward.

First of all, let me say how hard 8' poles are with a greenie! They don't give you much wiggle room when your steering isn't perfect. I had to really think about starting my turn early, especially down the long sides, or he could dodge a pole pretty easily. 

I got on and was immediately "something's not right". My stirrups felt really short, jump length short. Now, I had cleaned my saddle the day before, so I figured I had just put them on the wrong hole, although I was pretty sure that I had made sure to note what hole they were on before moving the buckle. And then I realized that the buckle (webber style) was digging into my right calf, which it never did. 

I think that what I did was put the leathers on the wrong stirrup bar. My saddle has two options for stirrup bars, the forward one is generally for jump styles of saddles and the rear one is for dressage. I know I put them on the back one, and I realized that they should have been on the front one. Oops. The front one also sits lower, so that would be why my stirrups felt shorter although they were on the right hole. 

Oh well, I wasn't changing it at that point, although we'll see if I regret that decision if I end up with a bruise on my calf. Although I did eventually drop the stirrups down by a hole, but not before I trotted a lap with the buckle releasing on my left stirrup and it getting longer and longer. I thought it felt weird but couldn't figure out what had changed. 

After all that, my horse was wonderful and I had a really good ride. I was right about the poles - they really helped with the forward. It appears that Stitch's favourite things are diagonal lines and poles, so put them together and that's where he really picked up the forward.

He still asked to stop somewhere on the course on every course, but once I said no he kept going. 

The last course had the best feeling at the end of the course. We came across the diagonal and maintained the forward around the short end - that is the trot I am looking for. That is the trot that felt like he was taking me somewhere, and he pushed into the contact with my hands softly. 

This was also the first ride since we got going again where he was starting to feel steady under me and not so wibbly wobbly. Being more forward probably helped.

Super happy with this ride, and we'll definitely have to repeat using poles on a regular basis. 

Coming Along

Tuesday's ride was about continuing to encourage Stitch to come forward through turn. He's now looking for the turns, so that's helping a lot. 

First full circle in the middle of the arena. He fell in a little bit after crossing the center line because he knew where he was going, so I didn't complain about it.

To me, he's still not carrying us as forward as I would like, but it's getting closer. He gave me a figure 8 that he just dialed in on when we turned off the track that felt wonderful - locked on to the spot we were returning to on the track, and a steady, strong forward. That's the feeling that I'm aiming for.

Stitch was all "I got this".

Part of the lack of forward is totally related to fitness. I still want to keep the rides short and not drilling, but we need to start increasing the amount of trot we do in a ride. I'm aiming for 5 minutes in the next few rides and working up to 10 (currently averaging 3-something). As he starts getting tired the forwardness definitely decreases. It would also help if he didn't do things right so fast!

Like this first attempt at head-to-the-wall leg yield off my right leg. He definitely got a cookie for it!