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Friday, April 1, 2016

Lessons Learned

Monday I rode Stinker for the first time in two weeks.  He felt really sticky and crooked and it wasn't a great ride, but I videoed it for one of my lessons with D.  Tuesday I rode him for 30 minutes and we just walked around on the hills and he felt a bit better.  That evening I got a chance to watch it and promptly freaked out.

Left side

I only made it three minutes into the video before I decided that I couldn't stand watching it any more.  He wasn't tracking up with his right hind.  His left had a nice overstep (typical), but the right was consistently short (abnormal).  Considering his right hind is my favorite leg to obsess over (aka the weaker leg) and the fact that the vet had been out on Tuesday and didn't look at Stinker (for a change) I went straight to crazy town.

Right hind not stepping up.

In attempt to get a bit of my sanity back, I had a lesson with S Wednesday.  I had been planning on riding Pongo, but I decided I wanted to get her eyes on Stinker.  He felt a million times better and S said he was tracking up evenly.  He was really good.  We just walked but we were able to work on straightening him, leg yields, spiral in and out, and serpentines.

The tired wild red beast

The moral of the story is I need to remember that if he has had some time off he is going to be sticky and it is going to take a couple rides to straighten things out.  And I need to keep a lid on the crazy.

10 comments:

  1. Aw poor Stinker- what a relief that he's fine tho! Keeping a lid on it is... Hard haha

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    1. So hard! But hopefully I can remember this for next time and not cannonball straight into the deep end. :)

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    1. Me too. In hindsight I was totally overreacting... I even went back and watched the video and it wasn't as bad as it was the first time. Oops :)

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  3. I sometimes feel like my crazy is stuffed into a closet that's bursting at the seams while I'm using everything I have to hold it back. Some is bound to leak out :) And that's ok. Recognizing it as crazy is a good step to putting it back in the closet.

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    1. Yes! I'm pretty good at keeping the crazy out of my professional life but this little Stinker makes the lid come flying off.

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  4. Courage will track a little short on one hind if I'm not riding him through as well. It's not an offness-just me inhibiting him with my super smart gyrations. Whoops.

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    1. I've noticed myself doing some very odd things in the videos, but having the videos makes me much more aware of bad habits. Like my reins being too long so my hands are in my lap... Ugh

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  5. It's so hard for me to rein in my crazy about lameness stuff! I feel you! Sounds like you have a good plan for next time he feels a bit crooked/off. :)

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    1. The real question is if I can actually stick to it. Apparently my horse isn't the only one that has a problem with their brain leaking out...

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