Disaster Bit, Round Two

Today I went out to the barn to deworm Walker and get a ride in before visiting M and Lark at their new barn.  I've never actually dewormed Walker before because my barn owner usually does it for us all, but I wanted to do it myself in case my new barn doesn't offer that service.  Walker is losing weight, and according to my barn owner, it's because he's replacing fat with muscle.  When I weighed him a couple months ago, he was closer to 1000 lbs, but today he was 960 lbs.  I'm always so conflicted about his weight.  I like him plump and fat.  It's definitely a quarter horse thing, but of course I want him healthy, muscley and toned.  My biggest concern is always that he's not getting enough to eat, which is probably me just being delusional since it's true that he's probably losing weight from all the work he does, not from being underfed. Just another over-worried horse mom!

Anyway, I rode Walker in the d-ring snaffle bit again today and although he was less forward, I still couldn't get him in a good frame.  My barn owner said that she wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't able to get his head into position in that bit just because of his training and blah blah blah.  She is the exact opposite from my instructor.  My instructor is a big fan of  gentler bits, and my barn owner is a big fan of harsher bits.  It's merely a discipline preference since my instructor has a jumping and dressage background, and my barn owner has a quarter horse/Western background where you pretty much don't ride a horse unless it's in some ungodly long shank bit.  My friend, A, has a French link bit that she doesn't want though, so I think I'm going to buy that off her and see if I can make that work better.  I realize that you're supposed to use seat as well as hands to get a good frame, but it's just very difficult to take a horse used to something so harsh and expect similar results from something so gentle.  I'm pretty sure that every time I put the d-ring on, Walker thinks he's on vacation and can do whatever he wants.  I just feel like I have no control!  And also, I think I do more damage in the d-ring just because he forces me to be so much more aggressive with my hands in order to drive him into a frame.  I just have to find that happy medium!

Other than that, I went and checked out M`s new stable.  I think I mentioned in my last post that I had the opportunity to read the nasty emails exchanged between M and my barn owner, and after that day, I was pretty much convinced to move to this barn.  However, I had a good ride with my instructor on Wednesday which calmed me down, and now that horses are getting turned again so my concerns are quickly dissipating.  This barn that M is at is pretty nice.  The indoor is much larger than ours, which isn`t hard to do, and the horses get LOTS to eat.  They`re fed three times a day, and they get lots of turnout.  However, the paddocks aren`t very big, although I think that there are bigger ones around front that are simply impassible right now because of the snow.  The barn is also not heated.  I shouldn`t be such a big baby about that since I never had a heated barn before, but you really get used to it once you have it!  It seems like a great place for M and Lark, and M has already found a pretty eager and experienced kid to ride Lark on the days that she isn`t able to get out to the barn.  They also have a plan to teach Lark some manners, and the barn is mostly dressage and jumping as opposed to our barn which is so rooted in the quarter horse world it`s unbelievable.  Lark, who is a Canadian warmblood and has a background in dressage, is probably much better suited there.  I probably would`ve been out of my league!

Anyway, Walker is getting Sunday off uninentionally.  Apparently there are makeup lessons all afternoon in the indoor arena, and I don`t have time to go out any other time tomorrow.  Unfortunately he is getting Sunday and Monday off even though he already had two days off in a row this week AND I missed Friday. He seemed more than content chilling out in the paddocks with his friends though so I`m not going to worry too much about it!