Monday, May 2, 2011

4/28 New Feet, Bareback Test

Harley and Romeo received a healthy trim Thursday. Both had very long hooves, though Harley had been chipping up and self-trimming, though very unevenly. With their new feet, I wasn’t sure how Harley would feel. Would he move out freely, be awkward as he adjusted to the trim, or be on tip-toes and thin soles?

So I tossed him out on the longe line, and found while a little awkward, he was forward, and light. Nice… No sensitivity in the grass, or on the sand. Nice…

I had stuck the bareback pad on him, so after some free longe all three gaits, I hopped on from the mounting block. Note.. From The Mounting Block. Not hopping from the ground, but I was able to walk him over to the steps, push his hindquarters to the block, and easily slide onto his back. He stood statue-still, and didn’t move on until I squeezed him with my legs. Nice!

We wandered the arena, with some halts and flexes, all with pretty decent results. I walked him quite a while, and found he moved pretty freely. In fact, I was using my standard amount of leg pressure, and he tried to pick up trot a few times. Well, alrighty then. If I’m adding leg, and Harley wants to trot, then let’s trot.

At first, he wasn’t real sure he wanted to trot, but realizing that it was okay to move forward, and I wasn’t going anywhere, he continued on. It wasn’t show-pretty, but I was out trotting mostly sitting, on a loose rein, and he was pretty steady moving forward. It wasn’t the biggest trot he has, but it was steady and consistent. Easy to ride..

A total of about 25 minutes including the longe. When I got back to the wash rack, R said to me, “Holy cow! I saw you bouncing around back there, but I had no idea you didn’t have a saddle on him! Good Boy, Harley!”

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