Walk It Off

Since I have no life, because, well, horses, Saturday evening either finds me at home on the couch trying to stay awake long enough to watch Saturday Night Live, or the only person out at the barn. This Saturday was the barn version of the Saturday night.

Cisco was my victim of the night. I tacked him up and took him over to the arena. I had thoughts that maybe I could hop on him without lunging first. Then I laughed and laughed.

So after a quick lunge, I hopped on. And found myself sitting on a nervous, fussy pony,

Always alert.

Cisco is very mouthy. And when he plays with the bit, he moves his neck all around. Up, down, retract,curl. I'm pretty sure it's nerves.

So on Saturday's ride I decided that we would just walk. On a light contact, with simple steering. And see if he would relax a bit.

He started out with lots of noisy chomping on the bit. A lot of it. And very unsteady in where his head stayed.

And after about 15 minutes, it got better. We did 3/4 of a lap without any chomping. And had moments of his head dropping down a bit. And lots of sighs.

I did about 20 minutes of walking, and was happy that Cisco seemed to relax a bit.

In a perfect world, I would spend an hour every day walking Cisco out on trails with a buddy horse and just give him slow work. He's a high-energy, sensitive horse who is always on.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck in a place where it is dark and freezing for more than half the year. So we have to do the best we can in the indoor arena. Which might mean lots of incredibly boring walking.

But if it is relaxed, boring walking, then it is time well spent.