My plan for the week was to ride Rags after the rain passed, if it wasn’t too muddy…however, the little norther came howling in dry and far too blustery for a ride Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday was another attack of gut trouble.\u00a0 So today I got back on him when not feeling quite 100%, in the evening when, alas, the wind had really come up again, this time from the SW.\u00a0\u00a0 The ride was…interesting.\u00a0 Right out of the gate, he was nappy (see, I’m speaking English English here) and wanted to turn back and quit.\u00a0 “No,” I said.\u00a0\u00a0 He prefers to dive to the right, and just shortening the left rein to keep him straight doesn’t work.\u00a0 To turn his head back to the left and straighten him out requires a strong pull sideways with a very short rein. STRONG neck.\u00a0 Short and thick.<\/p>\n
We went along, with him trying to duck and go home\u00a0 repeatedly, and me “doubling” him several times and making ~15 meter circles here and there to enforce “You’re going where I want you to go, kid…believe it.”\u00a0 He remained unconvinced.\u00a0 I was taking him off the usual trails to deal with what felt like excess energy under my seat (lots of revs there)\u00a0 and encourage him to pick up his feet, walking over slightly taller grass and other plants.\u00a0\u00a0 We covered more of the East Grass than we have before ,\u00a0 and had multiple “discussions” of what next.\u00a0 (Abrupt turn and lunge into trot?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Double left, double right, walk a big circle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Walk faster and faster and break to a big trot? No.\u00a0 Double, walk a big circle away from the homeward way. Pretend the car on the highway half a field away was scary enough to spin away from and head home?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Double, re-double, circle.\u00a0 Etc.)<\/p>\n
Tigger kept hollering for him, of course, and Tigger was upwind, so the sound carried easily.\u00a0 “Come back, come back NOW, don’t let her take you away!”\u00a0\u00a0 I did enjoy the bluebonnets–not a great crop but amazing considering the lack of rain–and the Texas stars (one flower per plant, unusual.)<\/p>\n
Although it was not hot (actually pleasant with a T-shirt and denim long-sleeved shirt over it) Rags was wet under the saddle when we got back.\u00a0 He is shedding now, but not nearly shed out.\u00a0 Most of the heat, though, was generated by himself, all those extra revs.\u00a0\u00a0 It was not a relaxing ride, but it was a good level of challenging for me.\u00a0\u00a0 Always fun to have a horse that’s not being dangerously difficult test the rider’s skills.\u00a0 Can you stay balanced with the sudden quarter-whirls?\u00a0 Can you stay balanced and upright when doubling the horse back?\u00a0 Can you try out other combinations of hand and leg that keep him straight as well as the doubling ?\u00a0 Which leg works better with this horse?\u00a0\u00a0 Is he riding better at the end than at the beginning?\u00a0 (Horses either improve or backslide on every ride.)<\/p>\n
I was tired when I got back but not too tired and he was not dangerously hot, or too wet.\u00a0 The exercises I do every day (well, almost…there was one day I couldn’t) are helping with strength.<\/p>\n
So to the vet we go Monday, for the Coggins test, the shots, the dental work, and another (probably final) soundness test for Tigger, and Tuesday I have the dentist (the horses meet their dentist Monday)\u00a0 To give me something to do besides ride Rags this week, we discovered that part of the floor of the house is, um, rotten and falling in, so I have to call a contractor Monday when I’m back from the vet.\u00a0 And re-call the plumbing contractor about the other house’s main bathroom which needs major work.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow I need to prepare both horses for the vet by trying to get them both groomed, manes and tails trimmed, etc.\u00a0 This may or may not work with Tigger.\u00a0 He has a bad mane trim, done a section at a time because he is freaky about scissors.\u00a0 However it’s better than what he had before, and this should end up looking respectable, I hope.\u00a0 Rags needs his evened out a bit (because he’s not freaky about scissors, his looks pretty much OK, just amateurish right now.\u00a0 Their coats are still long, only partly shed out, and since Tig hates all shedder blades…his is worse.<\/p>\n
I need bed now, despite a short nap after the ride and a bowl of potato and cheese.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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My plan for the week was to ride Rags after the rain passed, if it wasn’t too muddy…however, the little norther came howling in dry and far too blustery for a ride Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday was another attack of gut trouble.\u00a0 So today I got back on him when not feeling quite Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,48,16],"tags":[52,49,17],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-80-acres","category-horses","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-80acres","tag-horses","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}