New Halter

I was out of town over the weekend so I didn't get a chance to see Walker until Monday. My mother bought him this cute new halter and I made him model it last night before we worked.

The temperature has dropped substantially since last week and because the arena wasn't available until 8, I decided to simply lunge instead of ride.

It was a good opportunity to get him working forward from the ground, and I was fairly happy with the results. 

The barn manager had showed me how they lunge on the Program last weekend, and since she seemed to get good results, I did the same. There was a lot less fussing on his behalf so I'll take it. Although he did rear once. I hope this doesn't become his new thing. I nipped it in the butt pretty quick.

Other than that, he lost a shoe. I await the farrier. But the farrier did tell me that the reason he took the pads off was because the amount of sand and dirt from our excessively sandy arena had packed itself really bad in Walker's feet. I suspect that this is what made him uncomfortable. Since removing the pads, he seems to move just fine, and last night he was perfectly sound despite being lopsided and shoeless. Maybe this means we'll go back to normal shoes again.

Tonight I plan to ride and go back to square one. Again. I bought a dressage whip and have decided to make him as forward as his little legs can handle, although I doubt he has much more in him having pushed him last night. We shall see. 

Of course, if it stays -30 degrees Celsius, then we may just lunge again. Last year we had consistent cold weather so I rode a lot in that but this year has been fluctuating. I'm not as comfortable pushing him hard under those circumstances.