The Great Outdoors

I was very proud of Walker and me last week.

I decided to lunge him in the outdoor arena for the first time since maybe the Fall, and even then, we've only ever been in the outdoor arena a handful of times at this barn.

And you know what? He was pretty darn good.

Ok, "good" is probably stretching it. He was the same contrary beast in the outdoor arena as he is in the indoor arena, which in my mind is an improvement. When you expect worse and get the same, it's a good day.

I only lunged him because it was starting to get dark, but he worked pretty well. Then, to reinforce the idea that outside the outdoor arena is not a great place to try and escape to, I worked him for a few minutes on the harder ground.

This was a mistake.

It was only for literally 5-10 minutes, but the next day he was dead lame.  It was so noticeable that even my barn manager felt the need to give him bute. And let me just say that Walker could be hobbling down the hallway and she normally just lets that go given his constant foot soreness.

So then today we had a b-e-a-u-t-I-f-u-l day. It was so warm and the sun was shining. A bunch of the kids went on a trail ride, and a few other people were all out working in the sunshine.

But not us. I walked him outside for a few seconds through the open door, and the minute his feet hit the hard ground, I could feel his steps shortening and getting stiff. I figured, why chance it. So we worked inside instead.

Whenever Walker is in the outdoor arena, he is a whole lot of jerk, but god can he move. He is never trotting or cantering half as lovely as when he is outdoors being an arsehole.  So today even though we worked inside, he started off really great because I had given him a taste of the outdoors and he kept thinking that we were going out with all his friends. Once time passed and he realized we were staying inside, he went back to being slow and lazy, but at least we started off good

Then, as a treat, I took him out to graze. We wandered up to an abandoned paddock, which I discovered is twice the size of the biggest paddock we have and full of grass (as opposed to our sucky dirt paddocks). I have made it my mission in life to annoy the bejesus out of my barn owner to see if we can restore it so that Walker can go out there instead.

I suspect I'm not a model boarder.