The new fencer did the trick and Axel is safe and sound in the pasture he belongs in. When I drove up last night everyone was standing in the paddock near the barn. The gate to the side pasture was open and no one was grazing. I should have known something was up. "What was up?" you might ask. Stable Flies. That is what was up. And on, and under, and all over the place. Axel was covered in them. Granted flies and gnats are annoying but mostly they just buzz around and mind their own business. Stable flies bite and suck blood. Like giant mosquitoes. And they don't scare easily. You pretty much have to pick them off to get rid of them. Cody's nose was speckled with bloody dots from being bitten. Axel had them on his neck, face, sheath, rear, legs, and girth area. The other horses had them as well. Everyone seemed pretty miserable with it all. I wiped Axel down with the wipe on fly spray I have. I think that did help in the end. Cody had run off and wouldn't stand still so he didn't get the full treatment. Unfortunately after riding Axel had probably sweated most of the fly spray off.
Despite the annoying flies the lesson actually went fairly well. It was a lot warmer than I expected and I tired out easily. My position didn't fall apart nearly as much as it had in the previous lesson. Axel bent around my leg more often and even made it full circles of our "arena" in a fairly proper manner. I managed to not yank the heck of his face and I didn't even have to carry my whip. At the end of the lesson we attempted to get a canter. Naturally this scares me, I can hardly keep him on the circle in the trot, how the heck am I going to hold him in place at the canter! Hurdle number 1 was two-point position in a dressage saddle - not an easy feat. I gave up and just posted and intended to post the canter if it came down to it. We made several attempts to get a canter and most just got confusion and attempts on the wrong lead. At least we think they were attempts, either that or they were really wimpy bucks. We switched sides a few times to try and find his favorite direction but both ways he wanted to pick up the wrong lead. Finally, tracking left, we got a half hearted, wrong lead canter so we stopped him and that was the end of the lesson. Hopefully he'll chew on that and remember that was what we were looking for, well the canter part, not the wrong lead part. Just to round out the lesson, I walked Axel by hand and somehow he stepped on the reins and broke them. Granted they were only like $15 at fleet farm and I do have another set. I'm going to have to be more careful when/if I ever get my dressage bridle!
No comments:
Post a Comment