Icy Days

Walker didn't get turned out again today but some of the horses did. It was fairly treacherous. I helped my trainer bring them in and all I could think was that either me or the horse was going to slip on the ice, and neither scenario boded well for me! As much as I want Walker turned out, I also don't want him to end up with cuts on his legs from going through ice or slipping and breaking a leg. He's not exactly the most graceful pony.

My ride today wasn't too bad. He was feeling a little lazy (as was I), and so I worked on some conditioning exercises (probably more for me than him, but they were equally beneficial for us both). After a quick warmup, I started trotting two circles, loping a circle, walking a circle, turn on the haunches to change directions and repeat. After awhile I had to start switching up the amount of circles (sometimes two circles at the lope or one circle of trot, sometimes no walk) because Walker is good at patterns and he started slamming on the brakes after his designated one circle of lope. What a lazy bugger! We did this for probably the equivalent of 20 or more circles at the lope, but it was good for me because I find I get so winded trying to keep him going for several circles in a row in my English spurs. So clearly we could both use the exercise.

Besides turns on the haunches, we also switched it up and did some turns on the forehand. Not surprisingly, Walker was much better in one direction than the other, and turning to the left on the haunches is a mess - something between a side pass and a turn on the forehand. Ugh. I like doing turning exercises in my English spurs because I find it easier to keep contact on and use both legs to facilitate the turns, but he moves so much better off the Western spurs. I know he's stiff so we'll just keep working on it. I know he can do them - he's a Western horse. He's all about those lovely spins.

Can't make it to the barn tomorrow. I still have one more exam on Tuesday, and I think I'm being too cocky to think that I can prepare all my notes AND go to the barn everyday. Maybe if I was more of a morning person, but gale force winds can't get me up in the morning. Tonight I'm off to see the Hobbit on opening night so its been a nice couple days of relaxation before the work begins again.

I've been debating about what to get Walker for Christmas, and I was wondering what you guys planned to get your horses. I don't really want to buy him a Likit or something like that because all I can think about is giving a child a big bag of candy and saying, "now you can treat yourself whenever you want." Not the best idea for Mr. Gorby Guts. My only other idea is to give him my unconditional love but he already gets that every day!