After our week of ups and downs I was looking forward to Reffy's first dressage lesson. Of course, as luck would have it, my guy came in from the pasture Saturday night with this boo boo on his hind leg.
Now it doesn't look like much, just a little scrape, but in my experience with TBs, they tend to be delicate flowers when it comes to boo boos. I took him up to the indoor to lunge him and see if he was sound. Thank goodness, he was. I cold hosed his leg to bring the swelling down and gave him some bute just to be safe.
The next morning I kept him in and lunged him again to make sure he hadn't gone lame over night. He was still sound and our lesson was still on. Hooray! My mom and sister (and my baby niece) were coming to watch so the pressure was on. Lol. Reffy decided the best way to impress everyone was to thrash his head around and chomp like a maniac the whole time. Its so hard not to get irritated with him sometimes. He definitely needs more holes in his flash noseband to keep his mouth shut. The lesson itself wasn't too bad. We need to keep working on our downward transitions from the trot. Brakes were a bit of an issue and he pretty much sticks his nose in the air as soon as I ask him to walk. Gah! We also worked on riding straight down the quarter lines since he prefers to just bop along on the rail and not steer at all. Lastly, we worked on figure eights with a straight line in the middle, changing bend between E and B. Ref was pretty good when changing from his stiff way (to the right) to his easy way (to the left) but not so great changing bend from left to right. He just needs practice!
All in all, Megan was pretty impressed with how he looked since the last time she saw him. It had been about a month since she came out and gave us a crash course in lunging with side reins, and she insists that he looks taller and longer since then. He really does look like a completely different horse.
picture Megan took during our lesson
Fast forward to through a week of mostly lunging and only one ride Thursday night (I had a house guest Tues-Fri). He was actually quite good, and there was much less chomping since I punched extra holes in his flash.
Yesterday we had another lesson. It was super super nice out, but insanely windy, and since our outdoor is still a swamp from all the rain/snow, we were confined to the indoor again. Not so good. Lol. When its windy, the doors bang and the roof creaks. That can be a recipe for disaster. Reffy lunged quietly and I made sure to work him in the scary corner with the banging door. As soon as I got on however, the wind picked up and I had a spooky coiled spring under me. One of the boarders, Malinda, had come up to see how things were going and thankfully agreed to grab my vest out of my car, just to be safe. Megan pulled up as she was bringing it back up to the indoor and she was a little worried since dressage lessons usually aren't scary enough for crash vests. Lol. Luckily, it was only a precaution, and once we got to work he was focused and calm. Such a good brain on this horse! Things went so much better this time. Less thrashing, better steering and brakes, and he even started to figure out that he's supposed to remain on contact through his trot/walk transitions. We're getting there! Megan had me pretend I was asking him to walk, and at the last second before he broke from the trot, leg him forward again onto contact. We will be doing a whole lot of that over the next couple of weeks. I need to remember to continue to half halt on the outside and support him with my leg through the transition instead of expecting him to do it himself. We also tried a little canter, but abandoned ship when he tried to run into it every time instead of stepping right into it. No mach 50 trotting allowed! More cantering at a later date I'm sure, but for now, we will continue to perfect the walk and trot.
This week we probably won't do a whole lot of working at all due to forecasted highs in the low 20s. Brrrrr! Therefore we may not lesson this weekend. It all depends on the weather. Hurry up spring!!!!
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