Wizard Ride 173: Stay Loose

Wednesday, 8/25/10

Wizard was treated to another massage session by my friend. She’s tuning up for her certification exam. She felt some changes and some things stayed the same. There was still some back soreness, but it was on the sides of the back, not up by the spine.

Wizard was all loosened up for our ride and it was great. I felt the same result from the massage that we did last time- he was straighter and stronger than he is without one. Our ride was very mellow and easy, mostly keeping soft and riding easy patterns. Our riding clinic was the following day so I did not ask for a big physical or mental effort.

I rode him in my old Myler Comfort Snaffle (the unported one, without hooks). It’s a bare-bones bridle and Alibar used to ride nicely in it. I tried it a year ago on Wizard but he fussed like crazy with it. This time around, he rode well in it. I’m planning a few more rides in it. Perhaps he is getting a little more advanced as a riding horse and can maintain better contact with the bit.

Selena Session 44; Wizard Session 114: Teacup Muzzle

Monday, 10/26/09

Selena is a classy Thoroughbred mare. Tall, scopey, old-fashioned pedigree, and refined. Alibar’s old bits fit JR and Wizard with no problem but they are too big for Selena (see photo above). Alibar was more than a hand shorter than Selena but he wore a 5 1/4″ bit.

I did a little tinkering with bits and tried a 5″ loose ring snaffle and it fit her dainty mouth like a glove. Loose ring snaffles tend to run small since the holes at the end pose the danger of pinching the corners of a horse’s mouth, which means she can probably wear a smaller size in other varieties, like a D-ring.

The first thing I noticed when I rode her in the loose ring was that it felt even milder than my KK Ultra that I normally use. I think this will be a good thing for working on suppling and relaxation.

Our goal was to return to the lovely, huntery trot we had last week. I kept the patterns simple and worked on keeping my hands quiet and my weight secure. We worked on a large oval and did a lot of walk-trot-walk transitions, followed by serpentines and figure 8s. I was careful to ride to the very end of each end since Selena sometimes cuts corners when I am not paying attention.

At the end of each ride, I always ask her for a stretchy circle at the trot. This was the first time I could feel her “get it” and know that it was part of the cooling-down process.

I repeated Sunday’s session with Wizard: a little light longeing, followed by the beginnings of long-lining. He is getting better every day. He is still sticky to the right but developing the ability to work a distance away from me to the left. I ended the session with some free longeing- Wizard is so responsive at liberty and it is always fun to work with him.