First up this morning was heading down to the Juniors, feeding them, Phil got Buddys injection done, and we headed back up to the house to head out for a trail ride.
Phil rode his stallion George, and I decided to give Cooper another run out. I saddled him, and took him up the front to do a few circles and see where he was at. He wasn't happy today. He didn't play up on the lunge like yesterday, he was just flat. He may have been a little sore from yesterday, but i decided to head out anyway. He has a show this weekend and he needs to have a bit of work beforehand.
Its funny, Phil and I were discussing Cooper, and how he has been sore in the feet, and Phil pointed out that he is the same age as Squizzy, and yet he has so many more expectations on him. Of course I know he is the same age, but it is interesting how we treat different horses, well, different. He was a large yearling, and, as such was started right at 2 years old, whereas Squizzy is fairly small, and as such I left her until she was 3 to even start her.
The plans now for Cooper. Our philosophy is to have horses that will last us for 20 years or more. This means, growing them out naturally, starting them when they are ready, and giving them rest periods. Not putting undue stress on them, and definitely not feeding them before their bones, tendons and muscles can handle it. Now Cooper has been grown out naturally, yes he has been hard fed - due to the size of his paddock, and because I ride him, but if you look at his photos he has always been of fair size, and at times could have been called ‘ribby’.
My plans for him at the moment are to show him this weekend, more than likely in just the led classes, but I may do a hunter class, and for the immediate show season I will only show him in led classes. As for weekly exercise I will only lunge him a couple of times a week to keep him fit. When breeding season arrives in July / August, he will be serving mares, but I am going to limit this to 10 outside mares, and a couple of my own (if I own any by then!).
So, we headed out on the trail, and Cooper was pretty tired. I asked him to trot out, and he did for about 5 minutes, and then slowed. I did ask him to keep on going - he needs to learn work ethic, and to push through that barrier (he is a bit like me, he wants to give up when he gets a bit tired!). We picked a trail today that had heaps of really steep down hill sections to it. This meant the horses had to really get their butts underneath them and work from the hind. Cooper kept wanting to creep sideways (this lets him not use his hind as much), but i asked him to straighten up and go straight down the hill. We were doing ok (not as good as Phil - he has done a heap of this sort of stuff, and his horse just goes where he is pointed!), and then we hit a really steep spot, Cooper just turned sideways and I was just looking down going, oh god, we are going to roll! But we didn't of course, however Cooper just wouldn't listen, he backed into the scrub, and parked himself conveniently over a skinny tree stump that had broken off and was quite sharp - so now im freaking out that if he does stumble, he could stake himself. I was in my dressage saddle aswell, and i wasn't feeling too secure! I decided to hop off and lead him down the rest of it. We did this no probs and I re-mounted at the bottom of the section.
The rest of the ride wasn't bad - Cooper kept giving me “pixie ears” which I was a little worried about - Ken Faulkner says “The last thing you saw before you got bucked off was probably pixie ears” and he is dead right. Cooper gave me super pixie ears before he smoked me when I was starting him. Thankfully he didn't buck today - i kept working his hind, and also asking him to flex properly in the front. I got him home and washed him, rugged him, and put him in his new paddock. He and George have swapped paddocks, so Buddy can be up near the house for his treatment.
After Phil headed to work and I had some lunch, I headed down to the juniors paddock. I had about and hour and a half and I wanted to ride both Squizzy and Rocky, but I was umming and ahhing about Squizzy. She is ahead of him in her education, and she is heading out for a trail ride tomorrow morning. She has also been a little naughty and has been left out in the paddock with Rosie, to get a bit of bossing around. So I get down to the yards, and I can see Squiz way over yonder, in next doors paddock. No wonder - It has lovely grass that gets slashed all the time, so I'm happy - a day off in a nice paddock will probably do her the world of good. I wanted to get Rocky ridden, as he had only had those couple of pony rides, and the one time I rode him and wasn't happy, and my goal is to have him done, and back grazing in the “bush” paddock by the end of April.
This is part of our philosophy, start them at 2 or 3 - whenever they are ready, put 10 or so rides on them, then put them ‘away’ for 3, 6 or 12 months. Give them time to mull it over, and grow, both mentally and physically.
I head out with my saddle, rope hackamore, stick, and get cracking. Rocky and Boogie headed straight for me, wanting to check out everything I’ve got. They are so funny, they just want to touch stuff, and smell it (and walk on it - thanks boogie!), and they jostle for my attention, like little children or puppies that unconditionally want your attention.
I haltered him, saddled him, and he was just so nice and calm. I thought, there has been another change, or maybe this is the continued change from the work yesterday, but he just seemed to be talking to me alot better - or maybe me to him - who knows, but we were on the same page today! I started doing a few groundskills with him, and it was really positive. We were just really working together today. I wasn't going to ride him at all but the stars were aligned so i led him into the yards. I did some more work with him, and even did driving which we only did the other day, and squeeze. He got a little “off” in the driving and I had to be a little direct with him and tell him to stop stuffing around, and he came good. I yielded him the front, the hind, put the rope around him and asked him to go away from me, and it was all so smooth and lovely. Even his backup today was light. So, I hopped on. It took a couple of goes to get him to walk out, I think my weight on him (he is quite small), he was like, your joking aren't you?! But once he got moving he was great, I did a few circles on him, halted him, backed him up and it was, slow, and he was hesitating a little, but the feel was good. He was really trying. So I asked him to walk out of the yards, and along the paddock, and up a little hill, which he all did absolutely lovely, so i got off him.
What an awesome day :)
No comments:
Post a Comment