Lazy Cody

I convinced B to come down after work and go for a ride down the road last night. Cody got his extra dinner which he spilled all over the ground and had to clean up. I might have to start feeding him in a wide tub he doesn't spill any when he's picking it up one piece at a time from the ground. I grabbed Diva out of the pasture for B and I fed Axel a bit of Cody's food with some MSM thrown in. MSM must taste pretty good, he licks the bucket clean.

When I was done grooming Cody I lunged him a bit in the arena while I was waiting for B. This time I just stuck with the 12' lead and did some circles and changing directions. He picked up the pace after a few times of making him change but he was still pretty lazy.

I decided since Diva was on the mend that Cody would go out sans boots and we'd stick to the ditch (secretly hoping for a canter). So we ended up riding the whole drainage ditch between the corn fields. I still plan to get out there and run a bit one of these days. Now we've seen the footing the whole way, it's not too bad, a few big rocks that are easy to avoid and very few holes. Cody was pretty tough to keep moving, he kept pretty far behind Diva and we had to trot to keep up. I'm thinking it might be time for the chiropractor visit again. And there's always the dentist and sheath cleaning. Expensive ponies.

When we came to the end of the corn field we went up the road a ways and stopped by a small herd of fresian crosses. Cody was a little quicker on the way home but I wasn't having to hold him back at all. We ended up chatting for a while in aisle while Cody and Diva sniffed each other politely and stood patiently.

Training Ride

We're just going to call this one a "training" ride. I zipped on over to the barn where B and A were waiting to go on a trail ride. I decided it was Axel's turn and he hopped into the last spot in the slant load trailer. Last spot = not as far to back out + we've been working on backing off the bridge and out the barn door = easy unloading. WRONG. He refused to get out. The problem appears to be that with the corner tack room in a slant load, he can't see where he's going. He turns his head to the left and presses his body up against the opposite wall. He can't turn around and in that position if he started to back up he'd hit that opposite wall. He won't turn his head straight and move his butt to the left and back out. After a lot of swearing and pushing and pulling and tapping and hitting and just about everything we could think of, he finally pretty much fell out of the trailer. We had unbalanced him enough by pulling on his tail a bit that he stepped back and sideways and we kept him moving with the momentum and he was finally out. New lesson: backing up with blinders on.

So after we got him out of the trailer we went on our happy way. Nothing like having to hitch a ride in the first place only to have your horse do something as stupid as not wanting to get out of the trailer. When we got to the little pond/lake thing B decided Diva should go in the water. She hates water and we were ready for a bit of a battle. Axel and Danny jumped right in, and out, and in, and out ad nauseum. Diva did not want to get in. After a lot of fighting (similar to the trailer unloading event) she finally got some feet in the water. She was still not terribly happy about the situation but she stood there, walked around a bit, and didn't completely loose her mind. So we called it a success and headed back to the trailers. All in all it was a short ride but after two big battles we were spent.

Instead of the fight we put Danny in the slant load with Diva and Axel spent the ride home in the stock trailer by himself crying the whole way. Since I'm a glutton for punishment I chose to back him out of the stock trailer. Which he did. Perfectly. So I think that just reinforces the reason he won't get out of the slant is because he can't see.

Goofing Around

Of course I forgot to take any photos last night but here's a nice one of Axel from last week that I hadn't posted yet. When I got to the barn B was just riding Diva in the arena, she suggested we head down the road a bit. So I grabbed Axel and got him ready as fast as I could leaving a bit of time to scratch some of his bug bites that itched. We made it down to the cows with Axel keeping a pretty decent pace, though trying to grab grass the whole trip. Diva wasn't so sure about the cows and positioned herself behind Axel while they looked on. I still want to take Axel and Cody to a cow clinic sometime.

When we got back to the barn we watched A load up Vinny and head out to her formation practice and then went back to the arena and goofed around. We trotted a bit and cantered. Axel canted more than he usually does so that was a win for him. Diva gets really strong in her plain eggbutt snaffle so B was working on that a bit. We tried some rollbacks and we worked on some lateral stuff which didn't go very far with Axel. We discussed jumping on the horses bareback and how exactly to go about that task. So we untacked and gave it a try. I can jump up on my belly from the mounting block but that's about it for now. B thought she needed a chair but she managed to get up on Diva with just the mounting block. So we rode around on our sweaty horses bareback for a while. I attempted an "around-the-world" for the first time. I tried to kneel on Axel's back vaulting style but he's not quite big enough for me to do that. One thing I did discover, okay two things, he backs up much better with just the lead rope than with a bit, and he understands the lateral cues a bit better with no saddle. He managed to do a turn on the forehand in one direction. So we have some winter projects lined up: bareback lateral moves. When we were done goofing off like kids and our butts had soaked up all the horse's back sweat it was time to call it a night. But not before Axel did his "rolling on command" trick. Okay so he doesn't do it on command but when he lays down to roll I've been saying "roll" and then praising him as he does it. Maybe it'll work the other way around one day.