Wizard Rides 208, 209, 210: One More Time

Thursday, 12/2/10

Had a great lesson with Carole. I got Wizard warmed up and we worked on a line of gymnastics for the majority of the lesson. We worked on keeping Wizard settled and confident while he learned how to negotiate the poles and jumps. Carole kept the jumps small and worked on keeping us soft and focused. She’s a master with the gymnastics grid, and she was adding and taking away poles with each pass in response to each jumping effort. Here are some short video clips to show where we are right now. My position needs TONS of work, even over tiny fences like these!

Saturday, 12/4/10

Took Wizard on a quick trail ride with my friend and her mare Lily. It was getting dark, so I tacked Wizard up really fast and hopped on in my jeans instead of riding clothes. We rode for about half an hour, taking the short loop and walking the entire ride. Looks like I have another trail buddy when we can make our schedules work!

Tuesday, 12/7/10

Rode Wizard indoors at night after work. We did some suppling exercises in response to some of the work we did in Thursday’s lesson. I wanted to work on bending and asking him to relax onto the bit. We did some spiral work and transitions within gaits. The canter work was a little tense, but he settled nicely.

So Wizard has Wednesday off, and I turned him loose in the indoor arena on Thursday morning (12/9). He ran around and played for a few minutes. Then I tacked him up and got on. He was unsound on his left front leg. He did not work out of it. It was not obvious at the walk, but it was very obvious at the trot. I hopped off after the few minutes. For the past week, I’ve been at the barn each night to give Wizard his hay cube mash, and he is still not sound on the leg. I can’t feel any heat or swelling. I was sort of hoping it was an abscess or a sprain, but it’s not getting better (or worse). I think it’s time to call the vet soon >:^(