Do I or Don't I

I'm still pretty down in the dumps over last Wednesday's lesson. To make matters worse, I expected the farrier to arrive by the end of the week and he never did.  So now I expect Walker to have another week off, which means he will have had a total of four weeks off in a row (if you don't count the two rides I got in one weekend in the middle).

To tell you the truth, I waffled tonight on whether or not I should ride him.  I almost gave in and hopped on, but then the arena had five people in it - one riding and four doing extensive groundwork.  I decided that a semi-lame pony and her idiot companion really didn't need to add to the chaos.

Sometimes it's so difficult to make that call - the "do I or don't I" of riding a lame horse.  Oh, it's an easy call to make when they're dead lame, but when they're just off - that's the hardest.

In fact, last night, two other horses were lame.  One rider rode anyway, and the other didn't.  The horse that got ridden was obviously much less lame than the other, and in fact, seemed to work himself out of it a bit once his rider hopped on.

Sometimes it's so hard to tell the difference between they're lame and they're stiff, or they're rideable and they're not.

That's the thing with Walker these days.  When you walk him down the hall, he looks fine.  Turn him, especially over his right front, and he'll hobble.  Jog him in a straight line in the arena or even large, he'll probably be fine.  He can deceive you.

And god bless them, they always just do what we want, don't they?