It has been a week of rain, rain, and more rain. I gave up an opportunity Tuesday because I felt like the footing would be too bad to ride, and it just rained and rained. Yesterday was a fairly nice day, so I was hoping for NO rain at all so it would be fairly dry today. No such luck; JUST as I arrived at the barn today, the bottom fell out in a little pop up thunderstorm. I got straight to work on the stalls and waited. After 2 1/2 hours of cleaning, it hadn't rained since I'd first arrived. Decided to go get Audrey because I need to train on her twice a week. After tacking and heading into the front pasture, it was very apparent to me that it was still quite slippery. We did a lot of walk work, focused on just being straight at the trot, and only cantered straightaways.
I almost talked myself out of riding Tiki, but then I gave myself a mental butt kick and got him out of his stall. Observed his coat looks really nice; no trace of rain rot anywhere other than those back legs; and it has cleared up from the front of the cannon bone, and rotated around to the back side of the cannon; weird. Tacked him up sans ear bonnet, doused him with fly spray, and took him to the front pasture as well. Despite an almost week long vacation, I still donned my spurs. I was glad I did. Still lazy, lazy, lazy. Worked on straight and forward, our same old, same old. I am happy to report that the head shaking of the past seems to be just that; a thing of the past. He is happy to work, happy to trot, and didn't quite understand the poles he had to trot through, lol. I had 3 poles set up 9' apart to work on trotting/cantering/trotting/cantering etc. First, he had to learn just to trot through; he faces the jump standards and thinks he is supposed to run at it. Trot, trot, trot ... finally he started to settle in. Lots of reverses, more insistence on bending, and just a nice gentle sliding of the bit in his mouth to start to develop that topline. LOTS of leg to go forward but not fast, and a nice gentle feel of his mouth to contain his energy.
At the canter, I decided to really work the right lead because I'm THINKING about having my friend show him at the end of the month at a local show. If we're going to do that, he should at LEAST have both leads, lol. Picked up the right lead on the straightaway, halted before the corner, picked up the trot around the corner, and trotted over the 3 poles. That was hard at first. I repeated several times to really drive home the point that just because we canter somewhere does NOT mean he has to rush into poles/jumps/etc. Stopped when he picked up his right lead easily, then trotted over the poles softly and quietly. Reversed and cantered the poles on the left lead once, and he was done. It was way too wet to jump, and the poles worked him hard; he was very sweaty and huffing when we were done. I only rode about 30 minutes, but it was VERY muggy today, ugh.
Hosed him off, scrubbed his legs with anti fungal shampoo, and let him dry in front of the fan while I cleaned up. Used some Eqyss anti fungal gel to see if maybe it will clear up the rr once and for all. I love my pony!:)
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