Intro to Barrels

Good news, Opie's heel pain was nothing more than a tiny abscess that resolved overnight with hoof packing.

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Despite being due, Farrier didn't trim him when she pulled his shoes to leave enough foot for him to chip off as he pleased during the transition. He hind feet, however, have always been bare and they really needed to be done. The abscess was in a bit of overgrown flare so I rasped that down once it came out. His front feet are chunking off where his clips were so he doesn't need a trim right now--at least not one that I can't do by myself.

I pulled off a pus-filled diaper the morning after treating it, threw him outside with his friends for the day, and then came back in the afternoon to soak it and repack and rewrap it. The next morning he was sound as a dime (on his naked fronts, too!) so we took to the outdoor to finally play with our newly acquired barrels.

We started off walking and trotting the pattern L-R-R. I figured since his L-R lead change is better, this would be easier for him. When we moved on to the canter, he wasn't interested in the lead change at all so I just brought him back to the trot to change the lead.

The first few times, he went through the motions until I let him loose after the last barrel. Then I turned him loose into the first barrel and his little gaming pony brain LIT UP. "Fuck yeah, do the things fast! My favorite!"

He kept swapping over to the left lead coming off the last barrel to run home, so I finally reversed the pattern to R-L-L. He was much happier with this and even started throwing in a front lead change. I only did that twice so we could be done because I didn't want to do too much with his feets.

Hopefully I'll be able to bring Hubby out to the barn this weekend for video. The evil neighbor reported the barn to the cops for running a lesson program. Nevermind that there hasn't been a lesson here in a month. BM is conflicted on how she wants to regulate moving forward. What a miserable asshole. (The neighbor obviously, not BM).

All the recognized dressage shows in the area have been cancelled through the end of the year, so we've got no pressure for this year now. Good thing I never paid my USEF and USDF memeberships!