Monday's ride

An awesome day of arena work is seldom followed by another awesome day of arena work. It didn’t surprise me that I had problems, but they were very odd problems.

Cole was very fussy during our warm-up, and that made me suspicious. When I asked him to trot, he jumped. I stopped him and tried again. He did his huge trot, right from the start. I clicked and treated him after only a few steps. We only did a few transitions when he told me he wasn’t going anywhere. He got very fussy and irritated when I asked him to walk forward.

He was so odd, that I got off and checked his bridle and saddle to make sure everything was correct. It was, so I tried to ride, again. By now, I started to think he was just sore from the previous day’s ride. I had thought at the time he may have done too much, so maybe he did. I still had trouble. He got light in the front a few times like he wanted to rear and once he bucked when I asked him to walk.

Sigh… When I did get him to walk off, I clicked and treated. I did it over and over until he was walking circles. We still had some trouble, and I had to do the clicking in both directions, too. We did a little trotting each way (ordinary trotting), and then called it quits.

He must have bee sore—just like I am from lifting those huge bales of hay that they just got in. They feel like they weigh 200 pounds! I had to lift 5 bales onto the hay cart. I hope they get the lighter ones next time.

I turned him loose after the ride, and he rolled, bucked and ran around the arena a few times. I massaged his back afterwards, and he showed no soreness. When I did his neck, he was in heaven. It may be his neck that was sore.

He will have today off. I will test him out on Wednesday. Thursday, his feet are being trimmed, and then I won’t ride him again until Saturday.