His first love - the gate
For whatever reason, the horses were inside today which was a shame because it was absolutely beautiful out. I even ditched the jacket after I started riding. Walker was pretty hyper since he was cooped up inside, so he was anxious to run - and run he did... for about 40 minutes. That's 40 minutes of pretty much straight canter, with just maybe 30 seconds of trotting between every couple of minutes of canter. So needless to say, I think my horse is in shape, at least in terms of cardio!
Exhausted pony after our ride
Despite the feeling that my horse was going to break into a gallop at any minute, it was a lot of fun today, as oftentimes those crazy get-all-your-energy-out rides tend to be. He was the one who wanted to canter, and I only forced him onward when I wanted him to listen to me. For instance, he wanted to run to the gate a couple of times instead of turn (we were doing figure eights - he wanted to circle back to the gate instead of switch directions in the middle), so when he would fight against me and break into a canter towards the gate, I would make him canter the circle all the way back until the middle of the figure eight. If he did it again, we'd canter the circle again. He never got to stop at the gate. When he was done with his foolishness, he could stop cantering, and we'd calmly switch directions in the middle.
covered in sand and mud from his run
Because I was doing a lot of cantering and a lot of figure eights, we did a few very nice flying lead changes. A couple times, he chose to stay on the counter canter (I have no idea why he would choose to make his life more difficult!). Compared to the rides I have been having inside, I would say that it wasn't as "controlled", but it was still a lot of fun. You can't work on things all the time. Every so often you just need to have fun. The only thing I regret about the day is that I think I was the one who fell apart the most - hands all over the place, leaning forward, probably pulling on his mouth. The faster he goes, the more uncontrollable he sometimes gets, which means the more frantic I get. Even though I am perfectly capable of riding it out and staying in the saddle, I just look like a hot mess! :S
Then, because Fridays are usually our days alone at the barn, I took my time cleaning him off. I threw his new cooler on him (the first time I've actually used it for its function instead of just its looks!) and watched him while he ate his alfalfa. I'm a little disappointed in the quality of our hay this Winter. Apparently this summer was really bad for getting good hay, and some of ours has even molded. The barn owner obviously had to get rid of that stuff, but the hay that he was given today looked more like straw than hay. I often flip flop between whether or not I think Walker is overweight or losing weight (it's so hard to tell when you see everything through a "worried mommy" lens!), but when I see hay left over in his stall that looks like that, I get concerned. Walker LOVES to eat (don't they all), and it's pretty bad when even he won't eat all his hay. I give him alfalfa more as a little snack than anything else, but today I gave him more than usual since he couldn't graze outside and clearly he didn't enjoy his breakfast.
Is there more snacks in this bucket too, mom?
Other than that, I read a very interesting blog post on SprinklerBandits about conformation, and I've become obsessed with looking through old pictures of my boy to see if I've done him some good in his fitness or not so good (hopefully it's the former!). It's difficult for me to compare the horses though since Walker is a Quarter Horse, but the general ideas are still the same. I think he looks pretty balanced, but someday I'll have to get a second (more educated) opinion. Maybe I'll ask the Western Pleasure guy at the clinic - QHs are his specialty after all!
Eeyore - our resident stubborn donkey
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