Sounder and sounder

Feeling quite sorry for himself

Something got into Mr. Riley last week. He just wasn't himself. I was terrified of even saying the word 'colic' out loud, but he was just off. Nipping at his chest and sides (he can sometimes be a little girthy), he was strange when I bridled him and worse by the time I got him to the ring. He REFUSED to stand at the mounting block. This is very odd for Riley. He's the kind of horse that I can park at the mounting block after having a month off and get on while he stands stock still. He was not having any part of it, and we had a bit of a come to Jesus moment when he tried to scoot away with my foot in the stirrup. I broke it back down to basics and I was able to get on without much fuss. Sigh. But all was not well once I was on. I know it probably sounds a lot like I'm babying him, but spending so much time with him while he was recovering from soundness issues had given me a really good idea of what his baseline personality is about. He wasn't been cheeky or hot, he was just not himself. When I got off (after only a few minutes of work) I took the photo to the left. Poor dude.

Special.

When I returned from my trip, Riley seemed sounder than he has been in quite some time. He's still a bit off or uneven, but I'm trying to work through it as I think it's a strength issue more than anything. His feet look GOOD. His soles have stopped feverishly exfoliating and they seem to be toughening up a bit. I think just getting them off the ground is helping. He was back to his old self, which was encouraging to see, the picture left says it all. He's a bit of a cartoon character most of the time, so it's quite noticeable when he's not feeling 100%. We've starting getting back to down to business, slowly adding time and real work into our rides. He's doing okay, but his stiffness tracking right is starting to be a real problem. He's just not strong enough to work correctly going right so we're going to take things back to basics to help him build up some muscles. He's so out of whack going right that when we're trotting, if I start to ask for some contact or bend (or heaven for bid, both) he break into the left lead canter for a step. I push through asking for trot, but he'll do it any time the work gets "hard".

It seems quite obvious that we need to work on strengthening up his back and teaching him some real bend. So Sunday I broke out the surcingle and side reins. I've been using a neck stretcher, but he's already really good at relaxing his neck and stretching on the lunge. I want him to learn so balance with a little bit of contact, and I think the side reins are just the trick. I warmed him up in both directions (though, getting him to move out is ridiculous... lazy bones) -- snapped on the side reins super loose, but enough to catch him if he got strung out, and sent him tracking left. Once he got a feel for them I asked for some trot and I have to say that he moves a hell of a lot better when he's actually using his back! Much more forward and balanced. About 5 minutes of varying speeds, with lots of transitions and we switched to his hard side. He was pretty good tracking right too, though less excited about not being able to pop his shoulder and throw his body around. I think I might look into getting one of the Faux-ssoa systems, since he throws his hind end around to compensate for his lack of balance. It would be helpful to have control of his whole body from the ground!

I think the lunging is going to be very helpful for him. It's a massive struggle to get him to canter on the right lead under saddle. As in, I tried unsuccessfully for 15 minutes while he got increasingly flustered. I think for ow, our workouts are going to either be lunging for 20-30 minutes with and without side reins or rides that include long warm ups with w-t-c and some connected work at the trot. I'm going to leave the canter off the table for now and see how well he does once he's got more tools in his toolbox. He's feeling much better under saddle as far as soundness goes and he can walk on all types of terrain without mincing along! Watching him walk confidently on blue stone downhill to the barn just about had me in tears on Sunday! Let's hope that things can keep moving forward so we can get him to some fun little shows in the fall. He's too handsome to keep at the barn! In other news, I'm sort of eager to move to a new barn because I am always riding alone and it is boring. The end.