Training Day 4

April 29, 2010

Training Day 4 seemed like a repeat of Training Day 3. With a few exceptions. The training horse should be bucking less or none during free lunging with the saddle on. And I rode Shaggy.

With the training horse still bucking as he goes off into a lope, the owner and I are thinking that his back is sore. When I ride him at a walk and at the foxtrot, I don’t feel any apparent soreness or gimp. I won’t lope him until he is not bucking when he goes into the lope. He kicks out with one hind leg, and that would just jar my body too much.

He is moving beautifully off my legs. The owner wants him to side pass, back, etc with ease. I do ride with small spurs, that give an extra push when you need it. This horse seems more sensitive than that though, and rarely needs that push with the spur. He is all over the place with his head, and I am working on keeping him straight through the bit. I also changed bits on him, and will post a picture over the weekend, of what I am using. The bit is a milder bit that what I think he is used to. This one is a short shank Myler, that curves around his tongue. It would have more tongue release and more room for his tongue to lay.

Both the training horse and Shaggy give to the bit. I wanted to start working with the long lines with Shaggy yesterday, as he needs more desensitizing to the ropes. But it was an 80 degree day and I didn’t want to sweat that much! Lol Today is much cooler, barely in the 60’s after the storm we had last night, so I will be ground driving both horses today.

I free lunged Shaggy with the saddle on, and he bucked more than I thought he would! He hasn’t had a saddle on since last fall, but he shouldn’t have been bucking. So as he lunged and then started bucking, just as with the training horse, I changed directions. Since he is out of shape, it wasn’t long before he was winded, and walked towards me. He seemed quiet, and after putting on my helmet, I stepped up into the stirrup and back down a few time. He seemed quiet so I stepped up on him and walked him around. I used the same bit as the training horse wore today. He tossed his head a couple of times, and after I dismounted, I checked his mouth. His teeth are a little sharp and I will get them floated next week. I walked and trotted Shaggy around. He has a nice big stride. We did serpentines and reverses, and started some of the same maneuvers that I was working with the training horse. Shaggy hasn’t forgotten anything from last fall and moves off my legs. He does enough head tossing that I will ground drive him until he is turning comfortable. I am hoping that the teeth floating will take care of that problem.

We’ll see how today goes!