So I've owned UK 9 days now, it sure seems like a lot longer! We did quite a lot last week.
I lunged him a couple of times, just lightly. He needs to learn to relax on the lunge line, he seems to always be waiting for me to ask him to do something terrible. He also has no concept of walking on a lunge line, and we're going to be working on that in the future.
I'm a firm believer that all horses should be able to do all gaits while on a lunge line. Especially the walk, if a horse cannot walk calmly with balance on the lunge line, then the rest of the gaits will be tense and unbalanced. My TB mare I just sold had the same problem when I got her, she was tense and cranky and would never walk. After a lot of work she'd walk on command, loosen up and wait for the next cue patiently. It really helped her figure out how to balance herself without relying on the human to do it for her. She got to the point where we only did canter departs from the walk on the lunge line!
I want UK to learn to have that confidence in himself. I went back through his records and found out he started "headset training" at age 2 and 4. That's a big part of his problem, he tries too hard to please and ends up unbalancing himself by trying position his head the way he was taught. Then he gets nervous and cranky and starts to fray mentally.
So I decided we'd do something different..... I tacked him up western (I'd only ridden him english to this point). I put out a bunch of poles and some standards in the ring and decided we'd play around a bit. I made a box and a V shape to back through out of poles. The standards I set up on the long center line for weaving. I learned some important things about UK!
1. He likes weaving at the trot, he got very perky, and got really enthusiastic when we started treating them like they were set up for pole-bending.
2. He learns quickly when it comes to things like a turn on the haunches in side the box of poles. He quickly figured out that I didn't want him to step out of the box.
3. He has no idea how to turn and back! He backs beautifully going straight, but he could not grasp the concept of backing through the shallow V of poles. He just couldn't comprehend it, and we'll go back to it with ground work.
4. He enjoyed doing something different! He got nice and forward and relaxed a good bit.
So overall it was a good ride, that is until I went to walk him out and Savannah started screaming her head off. He was tired and just started misbehaving and kept trying to turn back towards the barn. With his history of rearing I was cautious. I got him to go forward when he didn't want to, hopped off and led him out of sight of the barn, and then we went in.
Meanwhile his feet were falling apart! His paddock at his old barn was really wet, and he had some minor thrush, no big deal. However, after just a few days out in our lovely rocky turnout he was much more agile, but his bare hooves were chipping away at an alarming rate! I called the farrier and he promised to come out that Saturday. I also had called the vet and he was only available to come out Saturday as well... Oh boy, big day for UK! His rabies was going to expire, so I really couldn't wait.
So Saturday morning dawns and I get to the barn at 6:50am (I'd like to mention that I normally don't feed weekend mornings, However Betsy was away), fed them and swept the aisle real quick. Chuck (Who I love and drives 45miles one way for me), my farrier showed up at 7am as promised, and by the time he was done setting up UK had finished his breakfast with time to spare. Chuck agreed with my assessment that UK needed to go to 4 shoes (did I mention my bank account winced?). We only cold shod him, as we didn't want to overwhelm the poor guys. He did very well, and behaved much better then expected. Chuck believes he wore shoes at one point, but a very long time ago. So put on bell boots for turnout (just in case) and turned him and his girlfriend out. UK had me laughing so hard. I don't think he'd ever worn bell boots before, he was duck-walking!
I cleaned the barn and then ran to the DMV to renew my license (awful picture of course), picked up grain, ran home to grab some late breakfast, etc. Then I came back up to meet the vet. As we had a 2 hour window and it was really hot (90's)! I let them cool off in their stalls for awhile while I tried to map all his markings on his Coggins. Oh-Meh-Gawd! I've never had to draw that much! Jake had a Star, Stripe, Snip and 2 whorls. Tess has 5 white hairs on her head and some scars! His markings completely overwhelmed me.
Then I decided to see how he felt about clippers (DUN DUN DUNNNN). Not a big fan! But he did let me do his muzzle and his bridlepath after he got over his intial shock that I'd do such a thing to him.
Still no vet, so I finished grooming him, threw on the english bridle (Full Cheek with a copper roller), grabbed my helmet and made our way to the ring.
I had decided to ride bareback...
I didn't have the guts to try cantering him yet, but he was pretty good walk/trot. Didn't want to stop going backwards at one point(this is something he would pull with his old rider). A good shove of the hips accompanied by a growled "GIT" solved that. He was a bit pissed I didn't give up, but he finally snorted and gave up the shenanigans. Of course the Vet then pulled in. He was a good boy for his shots. The vet approved my "drawings" and that was it! Fed them dinner and let them back out for the night.
That's pretty much it for now. I'm either going to ride or lunge him tonight, providing the weather holds.
And the adventure continues!
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