Ride 47

Well ten minutes can hardly be considered a ride, but since I was on his back I'm going to make a post.  I was thinking about how he was acting and thought I would try a short ride today after he had a day off to see if his stiffness was from being ridden two days in a row or if it was his feet hurting from being overdue.  The consensus is..... both maybe?  He was much better today.  I warmed up at a walk for almost ten minutes and then asked him to trot.  He eagerly trotted off and this time he went about six strides before hesitating instead of the three strides the other day.  Then when I clucked at him he kept going for another six strides or so.

I had my husband watch and he saw absolutely nothing wrong.  I trotted a second time and he felt really good.  My husband said he looked even front and back, so I'm thinking it was from being ridden two days in a row.  He's also walking faster toward grass and slower away from it so part of it is being a bit soured from riding more frequently.  So my plan is to have his hooves done tomorrow, give him the day off and then ride again Tuesday and see what kind of difference there is in his stride.  If it's the same I'm going with soreness and sourness from being ridden two days in a row, if it's much better I'm going with super long toes being the problem, so we will just wait and see.

As far as the ten minute ride he was pretty good.  He stood rock solid while I mounted this time.  Apparently he learned his lesson after walking off on me last time and getting verbally scolded, then when I turned him back around he ran into the trailer (I was using the fender to get on bareback) with his hip so he sort of reprimanded himself lol.  Today he didn't move an inch until I asked him to.  Hey I'm all for him training himself haha!

As I mentioned before he was being a slug when we went away from the grass and walking out when going toward it (apparently I've been letting him graze in the yard too much), but other than that he was obedient and good.  At one point I asked him to cross a spot on our property where the water runs off (a couple inches deep and a couple feet across, so very shallow) and he resisted.  I tapped him with my heels for about fifteen seconds, but my dad came out of his house behind me and distracted me.  After I answered dad's question I asked again and Chrome crossed, hesitant and unsure, but willing.  I was so proud of him!!  We need lots of work with water crossings.  :D

The only other thing is that he didn't really want to stand still when I asked him to.  He'd stop perfect, stand for about fifteen seconds and then try to walk off.  It only took a couple of corrections and then he stood perfectly still.  He's just testing his boundaries because he's a spoiled brat and he wants to graze.  Since he's such a calm, sweet, willing boy I can't hold it against him.  It takes very mild reminders to get him listening again so what do I have to complain about?  I love this horse!!

P.S.  We turned our outside water on today so tomorrow I'm going to dig my wading pools out of storage.  :D