Back to work

At this point I would say Opie is completely back into full work. He's still got some cardio to rebuild--which honestly always lacks a bit in the winter when we're not trail riding as much--but he feels strong, and most importantly he's remained sound with each new thing I reintroduce.

He missed one week of his pulse treatment for Christmas, and when she came to do him on New Year's he wasn't any more reactive than usual, but he was definitely glad to have her back. 

rebuilding that beastly topline

I've been focusing a lot on the canter the last few rides after not doing much with it all of December. Thank god for the double during this endeavor. He wants to start off heavy and leaning, and the double takes care of that with zero fighting and half the work on my part. He also starts off crooked AF, but getting him super collected and doing a ton of work on the quarter lines is taking care of that. 

casually the most handsome

The trot work has needed a lot of transitions to get cooking. Which...it's dressage. I need to be doing ALL THE TRANSITIONS anyway, so the night and day difference in quality is keeping it easy in reminding me to do so. 

I need to start getting back to work on all the lateral stuff, keep plugging away at strengthening the canter, and then I'm going to bite the bullet and make BM get on him and see what she can do with his changes. I don't want to fuck up my back again. I know that whether she gets them or not, she's going to be a miracle worker and all his success is going to be thanks to her, but whatever. I want my fucking Bronze this year, and Imma do whatever I can to make that happen. 

we got a puppy. she is sometimes a goat, sometimes a demon
dragon spawn, and sometimes just a good nugget.