Some people would think, wow, you got on your horse and all you did was walk for 15 minutes and trot for 5, and you're all excited? Why?! Well, because it's been at least 8 months since I could even get on her, I would tell them with a big grin.
I wrapped all 4 legs, to offer the tendons in that left hind some extra support, and then let her do her carrot stretches so she'd have a chance to adjust to having her hind legs wrapped for the first time in ages (I usually only do the fronts). Then I massaged her back and started tacking her up.
Miss Piggy needed the girth extender again, but just barely. I probably could have forced it to go, but didn't want to cause any trouble...especially since the barn's "Winter Festival" was going on today and there were a bazillion people there. (I haven't been getting their newsletters, so didn't know about it!) Really, she was about 1 hole short of it being comfortable without the extender, so a couple of weeks and we shouldn't need it.
I did toss her on the lunge line for a few minutes to let her warm up, get any sillies out, etc., and she looked great to the right and a bit sticky to the left...and surprisingly enough, had no sillies! I blamed the stickiness on the circle and decided I was getting on her anyway, damnit.
I couldn't find the plastic mounting block anywhere, so had to try to get on from the 4 stair wood monstrosity that doesn't move. True to form, she kept swinging her butt away from me...it's really hard to try to convince a horse to move their butt back toward the mounting block you're already standing on. Boo. I tried a few times and decided that rather than continue to fight with her, since I couldn't move the block, I would just bring one of the jump standards over, to block her butt in. Success. She knew I wasn't playing around anymore and stood like a perfect angel (ha, I know the truth!). She walked off calm and relaxed, only tensed up once a few steps out, but when I told her she was fine and rubbed her neck, she sighed and continued on her way.
We walked...and walked...and walked...and walked some more, changing directions often with long diagonal lines. She felt amazing. She was soft and giving with her mouth, tracking under herself reasonably well, and moving through the hips with a nice swinging back. I alternated from asking for some connection through the bit and dropping my stirrups to stretch my legs down, to giving her the reins on the buckle and asking her to stretch and relax, while I worked on keeping my knees in, with feet in the stirrups.
All in all, we did nothing exciting at the walk, but it felt fantastic to be back in the saddle again! I had planned to only trot her on the straight sides, but the arena is relatively short and so by the time I got her to walk again, I figured we'd already be halfway through the short end. So, instead, I tried to make the short end as long as possible, didn't ask for any bend at all, but just focused on keeping her as straight as possible all the way around. We did twice in each direction, then walked one more time around before calling it a day.
She felt a little sticky and slightly off in both directions at the trot, but her ears were forward, her tail was swinging, she was relaxed and forward, and she was having a great time, so I told myself to ignore it unless it suddenly started to feel worse. When she'd gone about halfway through her first lap in each direction, she started to feel looser, almost like she had to change the way she was moving to accommodate the extra weight of me and the saddle, and once she did, that slight gimp she'd had before started to work itself out.
Years ago, if she'd had this much time off, she would have been an absolute demon and I wouldn't even have considered getting back on her without lunging for at least 30 minutes. I think I lunged her for maybe 10 minutes today and she was just so laid back (even with the cooler weather we're having!). Since I want to minimize circles, I can probably get away with skipping the lunging altogether and just do a few laps around the arena to let her back warm up or longline/drive her before I ride if I can find another lunge line or borrow one. We'll see. But, I think it's safe to say she's old enough and broke enough that she's probably not going to try to kill me anymore!! :-D
You can get a lot done at the walk - it must feel nice to be back on board!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! I know what it's like to be off your horse for 8 months and then back on at the walk and trot. I walk a lot on my guy too. We walk for at least 10 minutes before we ride and if he's feeling stiff to me we walk for 20 That usually does the trick.
ReplyDeleteI have a book of arena exercises I might pull out when I go up later this afternoon...there are some interesting things that I don't think to do without looking at it first. And I know that there are TONS of walking exercises :)
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