Two Horses

Bobby had a beasting, ass kicking, stellar dressage school yesterday. In the trot, we did leg yields, counter leg yields, lengthenings across the diagnol and down the long side, and stretching. At the canter, we began to refine the flying changes (he missed behind going from left to right a few times), worked on quieting the simple changes across the diagnol (coming to the trot at X and picking up the new lead at the rail), did the counter canter loop from First 3, started leg yields (killer tracking left leg yielding to the right, not as good the other way), and had fun with lengthenings which he rocks at. Basically, he dominated first level work.

What an about-face, right? Welll kind of. We accomplished all of this because of draw reins. Oh Em Gee, I know. Draw reins are not a daily occurance, new readers. Riding would be so easy if they were. But, again, they're not. So pull your panties out of your ass. The draw reins were a peace offering for a horse I knew was going to be holding a grudge against the tense, frustrating ride we had Tuesday. Yesterday, he got a pat or a neck scratch or a "Good boy!!" every minute of the ride, and Bobby loves to be praised. He ended the ride with his ego stoked. That was worth it for me. Draw reins can go back in the tack trunk.

crappy cell phone pic of the beast heading out to his field.

The second horse was Tripp. BO said to ride him if I felt like it because he needs the work. I don't remember the last time I rode him, but it's been awhile. We know his back/body needs work, and I know his teeth needed to be done when he got in over the summer. They haven't been done yet.

He was ridden western Tuesday, but I left before I saw him go. I threw him on the longe before I got on to warm up his back some and to get some crazies out. He was aware he was on the line, so he wasn't trying to rip my arm out, but he was being a total fruit cake. After fifteen minutes, I got him doing walk-trot transitions both ways and I got on.

I rode him for five minutes before getting off because of his non-stop, violent head flipping. I put him back on the longe with side reins on the loosest hole. He spooked at snow sliding off the roof and jumped forward, hitting himself in the mouth.... at which point he nearly flipped himself over. Awesome. I let him run around for a minute on his own accord before asking for a lap of quiet trot and calling it quits.

Does that not sound like classic teeth problems to you guys?

I told BM how the ride went and she said the girl that had ridden him the day before said he flipped his head the whole ride as well. According to BM, BO's suggestion was a Happy Mouth and a martingale because the barn "help" (we'll use the term loosely for this guy) checked his teeth and said he was fine. We won't go into specifics, but I feel very confident that Mr "Help" has no fucking clue what he's talking about. And, as you can see in the pic, he was in my Happy Mouth. He's going to get put in a martingale and go over backwards on someone. Just my unprofessional opinion.

Little old me, I know nothing though.