Two Rides on a Windy Day

Of course yesterday when it was gorgeous outside I spent the evening in the movie theater. Tonight it was windy and threatening to storm so I went out to the barn. Go figure. It wasn't raining yet so I groomed Axel outside where the wind could blow away any hair. He's still shedding a bit but almost back to black again. A couple spots the hair came off in big chunks, slowly but surely he'll be back to his shiny self.

I decided to just put the western saddle on him, I seem to sit better/deeper, I think because the western saddle doesn't have the thick panels. I lunged him a bit, he did really well at the trot and even had what I'd consider a nice extended trot (for Axel at least). He was a bit full of himself and kept trying to buck instead of canter but he wasn't pulling, just kind of being generally humpy. The arena was pretty warm so he was good and warmed up. He still doesn't quite get the bending exercise. We rode at a nice walk for a while where he was actually moving out a bit. The trot to the right went well but to the left he wanted to either stop, canter, or buck. He does not like when I post on the left diagonal. That diagonal leaves me sitting when his left hind is on the ground and that's his sore foot. I should probably just post the wrong diagonal but I'm afraid of unbalancing him. When I got off he followed me around for a bit and when I went to try and get him to do some stretches he immediately thought we were doing the bowing trick. Actually he was looking for his snack that he gets sometimes when we do that trick. He did finally let me stretch his front legs a bit. We'll have to ease into the back legs but those are the ones he needs the most.

I so wish I would have had my video camera on me today. When Axel finally laid down to roll he did his usual routine. Got his left side all nice and dirty and then worked on rolling completely over. Somewhere in the middle of one of his attempts his back legs went straight up in the air and he proceeded to kick them up and down like a little baby for a good 5 seconds before finally making it over to the right side. It was truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen Axel do.

Cody seemed to do alright in the pasture by himself while Axel was in the arena. He has dropped quite a bit of weight though. It's been a while since I've put the weight tape on him but he measured at 952lbs which I think is too light for him. Axel coincidentally taped at 1172lbs and he's actually looking really nice these days. I groomed Cody outside as well, he's still shedding a bit but he's harder to groom since he's a little bonier and more sensitive. He stood calmly in the arena tied to the wall while I tacked him up. Another boarder came in to work with her horse so Cody was less than excited to be lunged, he wanted to watch the other horse but we worked it out. Cody remembered the bending exercise after some work on it.

He was reluctant to walk out because it was in the direction away from the other horse. He finally gave in when I asked him to trot so we trotted in a circle for a bit. The other horse was working on ground tying so we trotted around as a bit of a temptation and Danny just stood there. Wish my horses would ground tie like that! I didn't want to do too much work with Cody. With his weight loss the saddle isn't fitting the greatest and I only had one pad to use. He was probably just distracted but almost seemed out of energy as well. We worked on the halt while I chatted with the other boarder for a while. It was probably the most patient Cody has been in a long time so after standing there for a while I got off. We stood there a little longer while the other boarder and horse left the arena. Cody even stood patiently for that. Of course as soon as we turned away from the gate to take off the saddle he got concerned and we fought for a while over that.

I tried a little bit of work with the whip to get him to stand patiently and look at me while crazy things were happening around him. He was pretty confused, started to understand, and then tuned out. We also worked a bit on some of the turns on the forehand and haunches, trying to get to a point where I don't have to actually push him around.

The vet is supposed to be out around 5 on Friday to do some of the horses shots. The plan is for him to do both Cody and Axel's teeth and sheaths and their rabies shots. From what I'm told the vet doesn't usually sedate for teeth but I don't imagine he's going to get too close to either end of Cody at least without sedation. Seems like a late appointment to do teeth but maybe he's just going to take a peek and set up a time in the future. Luckily I will be around on Friday to be there. Saturday Steph is going to come out and show me how to do injections and get their 5-way and Flu shots done and hopefully go for a ride.