shots

Tomorrow is shot day for the Tiki-muffin.  I hate doing them; I'm paranoid about the head shaking connection, and I don't like how he's always sore and lethargic for a day or so after.  I'm not sure how much of a fan I am of 6 month vaccinations ... but until I own my own barn there's no sense in obsessing about it!

Thursday I "made" myself ride so I could help combat any soreness in Tiki from his lesson Wed.  I know I was sore!  Rode in the halter out in his pasture for about half an hour and he felt pretty good to me!

Today I put on the dressage tack!  I haven't ridden in the dressage tack since my Gigi lesson last month.  He felt ... GREAT!  The ring was rock hard, so I planned to only ride 20 mins or so.  I can NOT feel any lameness in his hind end.  Since we were at home, there was no tail swishiness or swapping behind.  I did about a dozen halts, and he was starting to feel pretty darn good.  He felt forward and strong in a good way at the trot, and I did lots of 20m circles all over the ring.  Cantered a TINY amount on the 20m circle on both leads, halted a few more times, then ran through Novice test B.  Yes, I've decided to suck it up, pay the $85 USEA membership, and go Novice.  The test felt pretty good; our canter transitions were MUCH better before putting the test together ... figures.  I sure HOPE I can improve on a 54.something score.  I'm shooting for a score in the 30's.  Don't think I'll run through it again; I will just work on pieces of it so he can't anticipate and jump the gun.

Plan to ride on Thursday and Friday; giving him tomorrow and Wed off due to his shots.  Hope one of those days I can jump a little bit.  Thinking I need to set some actual 2' bounces and maybe a line of some sort.  Guess we'll see what the rest of the week brings!