Wizard Ride 32: A Pedicure and a Happy Mouth

Saturday 1/3/09

Wizard had his feet trimmed by my local farrier. He saw good improvement in the feet and was pleased with how they held up. Wizard has thin soles so I expect that he might be too tenderfooted to do a lot of riding over hard surfaces. Right now, he seems just fine barefoot and I plan to keep him barefoot as much as possible.

After his pedicure, I turned him out in the big outdoor arena and did a fun free longeing/liberty session. The weather was sunny and the ground was not frozen. The arena was dragged so the footing was quite nice. Wizard ran around like a youngster and after he got his ya-yas out, he began to longe in circles around me without a longe line. He’s so much fun. My mission is to get this same mood and behavior under saddle. At liberty, he’s like a big Golden Retriever, as my mom remarked.

I longed Wizard for about 15 minutes. He jumped around and fussed at the far end of the arena, but he was in the ring with a silly young Thorughbred who was bucking on his longe line. I gave Wizard a pass. When the other horse left, he longed just fine. I used a mullen mouth loose-ring Happy Mouth bit on Wizard for the first time. Improvement, but still a lot of chewing. My reins are so long that my hands are past the laced portion. He stretches down, but it does not feel like those nice toe-touching stretches that we want in dressage. Then the reins are totally long, and he scrunches his neck up really short and tucked under and then he tenses up and bounces a little bit. I’m trying to just let go and allow him to trot, but it feels so awkward and crooked. I’m sort of wondering if he’s going to do the porpoising thing from Ride 4 again. So part of it is my own trepidation and part of it is me over-analyzing everything.

So we just worked on walking this time out. He was tense and started doing a little bouncing but I got a flat-footed walk eventually. We rode for about 10 minutes. Now that the weather is milder, I’m hoping that my friend can hop on and take him for a spin tonight and maybe give me some pointers.

Here were are. Wizard is chomping on the bit. The rein was looser in the frame before but I’m tightening it here. You can see how low he wants to carry his head. I’d let him carry it that low but then he tucks his head up and I have a foot of extra rein. Also note the neck strap. It’s too short to really help me until we are trotting and cantering.

Wizard Session 31: Trampled Underfoot

Thurs, 1/1/09

Happy New Year! My mom always told me to spend New Year’s Day doing what I want to be doing for the rest of the year. So I went to the barn :^) I also worked during the day, which is fine since I love my job.

The weather was COLD. The ground was pretty hard so I decided to do a longeing session with Wizard indoors. Before I started longeing him, we were standing in the indoor arena and something startled him. He jumped forward a step or two and tripped over my foot with his hoof. The sensation of a COLD human foot getting grazed by a horse foot is not a good one. Owwwwie! It was a little purple the following day but now it’s just a little sore. It could have been far worse. And I managed to never, ever get stepped on by a horse for 31 years so I suppose I was due for a little tap by a hoof. Good thing he’s barefoot!

Wizard is getting a better grasp on verbal commands on the longe line. We still do not canter, since I think that trotting and walking are best for his mental and physical development at this point. Plus, I don’t train with the longe line as long as I like since he needs a shorter line to listen to my cues. As he gets more advanced, I’ll longe him on the longest line possible. My favorite line is the World’s Finest Lunge Line and it’s long enough to do a 20m circle.

We warmed up without side reins and I put them on for a few minutes when Wizard was at the peak of the session. He is still showing evasion to the bit whenever there is ANY contact. Is it his teeth? Is it the bit? I’m not sure. He needs more work done to his teeth so I’m hoping that will help him.

When he works in the KK Ultra, his mouth works very quickly. When he works in the Myler Comfort Snaffle (no hooks), he pulls downward a lot, more than just a stretch.

I’m also in the process of regrouping and trying to figure out exactly what I need to do to take our next step forward under saddle. Right now, I feel him tense up when I prepare to trot. He walks with a VERY LOW head set and he lifts his head much higher to trot, even at liberty. It makes the walk-trot transition a little difficult for me. It feels like he’s going to rush forward so I take a stronger hold on the reins, which I KNOW is the wrong thing to do. Sit up, let go of his face, and go FORWARD. It will be ugly before it’s pretty. Sounds so simple, but my brain cannot let me do it.