Change of Plans

Today I went out to the barn with the intention of working on several things: bending Walker on his stiff side, loping frantic corner (always a goal), and perhaps working on some flying lead changes because he's good at them.  When I got there, however, there was a man working up by the outdoor arena.  He had power tools and his extension cords were splayed out across the arena.  Although I was sure that I could have stayed to the upper end of the arena, I didn't want to take the chance that Walker would trip over a power cord or be scared by the man's tools, so I ended up riding inside instead.

This changed EVERYTHING.  First of all, there is no frantic corner in the indoor arena.  He doesn't bolt in there because he can't, and there is absolutely no room to do flying lead changes (I know - I tried).  I did get to work on bending though, and I found that he is extra stiff on his bad side.  I knew that already of course, but it helped confirm my suspicions that although part of the reason he won't lope around frantic corner is because he's being disobedient, he's being disobedient because he's stiff and he doesn't like being worked in that direction.  I confirmed this by loping him in both directions in the indoor arena, which forced him to lope significantly smaller circles than he's used to.  He did not nearly have as much of a problem on his good side, but on his bad side, there were a couple of times where he tried to stop at a wall and turn in the other direction on me (which he often tries and succeeds at outside).  He couldn't succeed at it in the indoor arena though because there's just not the space, so it was a lot of work to get him bending and loping in that direction.  I was very careful not to over-exert him because he was definitely panting.  At first, I only made him do a circle, and then trot, and then do a circle, and then trot.  I only ever got him to do 2 - 3 circles consecutively in either direction just because I know how much he was working to do it.

On my end, I worked on my seat and my position.  I practiced sitting deep in the saddle, giving Walker a nice loose rein, and I tried (with all my might, however successfully I did so) to glue my elbows to my sides.  When I'm outside, I know that I flap my arms like chicken wings, but it comes out even more in the indoor arena - probably because the entire loping session is a circle requiring turning, whereas outside, there are portions of it where we're loping straight and my arms rest.  Oh well, I may not look good while I do things, but at least I get the job done.

Walker has no problems looking good.  When I saw this caricature, it reminded me of him.  He's the John Travolta of the horse world, I'm sure of it :)

Today would have been a perfect day to work on my jumping because I was forced to be in the indoor arena.  I put down a pole and loped Walker over it a few times, although only on his good side.  I didn't want to add to his bending issues by adding an extra obstacle.  I'll save that for another day when I loosen him up.  However, I was unable to work on jumping because Walker's feet weren't done.

Let me back track.  The farrier is a busy man.  I understand this.  I know that things come up, especially when you're working with horses.  So every 4 weeks, I call him and book an appointment for 2 weeks time. I like Walker to get his feet done after 6 weeks, and I don't like pushing it to 8.  So he was supposed to come last Friday and then something came up so he said that he would come on Tuesday.  No big deal.  That's why I call so early.  On Monday, Walker turned up lame and I know that his shoes are probably the culprit because I could hear one clinking around.  Fast forward to Tuesday and the farrier says that he is coming on Friday.  At this point I'm getting perturbed because Walker's shoes are bothering him, but I understand that things happen.  So today I go out to the barn completely expecting to not be able to ride my horse because the farrier is there.  But the farrier isn't there and it is obvious that his shoes have not been done.  What's worse is that I left the barn at about 3:00 so I seriously doubt that he will be coming after that. Although a lot of people ride their horses when they're a little lame from their shoes needing done, I don't like to push it with Walker.  There are quite a few horses at the barn that are fakers - they fake being lame.  Walker doesn't do that and so I don't want to punish him for limping around by ignoring his pain.  So I definitely did not want to jump my horse even over a little crossrail with a loose shoe and potential lameness. Even though he didn't feel lame today, I didn't want to push my luck - I could still hear clinking every so often.  How difficult is it to keep to an appointment schedule!?