Finally a Ride

One of these days I'll bring out a decent camera instead of my cell phone. Until then you get weird orange tinted photos where you can't actually see just how shiny and dappled Axel is. I ended up leaving off his fly mask this time around, he's getting some rub marks on his face from it. We'll see if gets bothered too much by bugs without it. He went all last year without one and didn't seem worse from wear. I ended up just grooming him and putting some fly spray on. He was a little limpy still, maybe down to a 4 on the Axel scale but I didn't put him in the arena or anything to really see how he was feeling. I should have more time this weekend to get him moving a bit. The sore knee certainly hasn't slowed him down any. I just have to decide how much I want to push him.

So A was at the barn and suggested we go for a ride down the road. I tacked up Cody (no yawning) and put on his boots and some fly spray and we were off ... like a snail. He's soooo darned slow. I have yet to bring a whip with on the road but I might have to start especially since my reins are one piece and don't have any ends to use as poppers. We went along at a glacier's pace for maybe just under a half mile before he started moving a little better. Maybe he also needs a warm up but I'm sure most of it is barn sour. But with every car that passed and he didn't decide to bolt home I praised and patted him and we kept on. When we turned the corner at the mile mark he picked up speed, mostly because going parallel to home is better than going away from home. He had a few bursts of trot but they weren't completely spazzy and since Vinnie is a pretty solid and lazy guy Cody didn't really have anything keeping him amped up. As soon as he relaxed down to a walk and licked I asked him to turn around and he did so very calmly. The past few times even if our ride out is calm (but slow) when we turn around he turns it up to 11. So I was very happy when he didn't bolt as we changed directions for home. He did pick up a real walk finally. I should have made him work a bit more, do some serpentines or something, but I chose to let him walk calmly the whole way back.

I'm really going to have to keep riding him out as much as I can even during the winter so he doesn't get barn sour again in the spring, he was going pretty good last year (I think) and then spring came around and he was crazy again. But more time will always help. Part of his slowness I think is his application for retirement. I don't think he needs to be a pasture puff quite yet and I'd like it if he'd keep in shape and become a nice kid's horse. So he and I will keep working and one of these days one of us will win (hopefully it's me).