Thanks, Lucy!Jimmy was in "work" mode again tonight, and came out pretty stiff (even after I did his carrot stretches with him- they've made their way into my routine now so I ALWAYS do them before we work!) in the left front. We started with basic upward & downward transitions at walk & trot...he is so smart he figured out when I wiggle my hand (BARELY making the rope wiggle) he has to shorten his stride/slow his pace. Once he had some solid walk/trot work in he was really loose and looked wonderful. I let him canter a little, then made him come back to trot, etc etc. His reward for going downward immediately every time I asked (after 8 to 10ish times in a row) was to canter as long as he wanted. He's part Arab....so I'm lucky I'm not still there!! He really only cantered for 5 or so minutes. I made him change direction once, bringing him down to the trot, signaling him to come in, then pushing him back out with my body language and he knew just what to do, picking up the correct lead and everything. Very proud :-) It's perfect to work him at about 7PM because the round pen is then 90% covered in shade, so it's at least 10-15ยบ cooler than the arena, which is full-sun.
We concluded with a bath - which he had one major meltdown...he was cross-tied and still managed to flip out badly enough to pull his halter off his nose and left it hanging at his neck. Luckily a simple "Ho...." and he stopped after three rears! Improvement. He didn't trust me one bit the rest of the night though. I went into his stall with the bucket of poultice to wrap up his foot (for good measure - still doing the 1g bute/daily too) while he ate his dinner, and when he saw the bucket he pounced into the far corner of his stall and quivered, looking the other way like "If I'm not looking at you, then you aren't really there. Please go away. Please go away...". It took a good bit of cooing and coaxing at him to get him to trust me enough that I could walk up to him. Once I touched him he sighed and went back to finish his dinner. He stood like a champ while I wrapped him up and put his boots back on him.
This week Bill starts "lunge lessons" with Jimmy - He literally will be learning how to lunge Jimmy and how to speak "horse" in body language! I'm excited. I think he is too.
2 comments:
Jimmy sounds like a pro on the lunge, and it's great that he worked out of his stiffness!
Yep he really is an angel at it! I'm thrilled to have this much progress already with the soundness in his hoof. Very pleased.
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