We moved my dressage lesson from Tuesday this week to Monday instead. It rained all day and I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't be able to ride. But it finally let up before I left work and managed to hold off from starting again even though it looked pretty ominous. When I got to the barn the kids were all in the lower pasture. Beau was standing near the middle gate so I whistled (as best I can) to him and he started up toward me. I figured I'd get him in the barn before the others made it up and got in the way. Well they all heard me whistling (how I don't know) and came running like there was a fire. I did manage to get Beau in the barn without too much hassle. And then I noticed Cody's nose. It was covered in scabs and raw spots. Corey and Kiko had the beginnings of the same thing and Kalani had a couple small spots on his nose as well. It kind of looked like they all put their noses into something they shouldn't have. The more research I've done seems to point to sun burn or photosentivity. I attempted to wash off Cody's nose and put some zinc oxide on it but he wasn't overly fond of the zinc. I did my best and I'll probably try and get more on there tonight. No wonder Cody hates me!Tricia arrived and helped me out with the noses and we tacked up Axel and went to the first pasture to work. She set up cones again and we worked on weaving. Axel seems to enjoy weaving, though I think he enjoys trying to step on the cones most of all. After we'd work on something for a while he'd start getting bored and stop listening so we'd make him trot around the whole pasture in more of an extended trot (as extended as Axel gets right now). I was instructed to alternate my legs when squeezing to keep him moving and for some reason Axel did not appreciate that. He'd throw out one of his half hearted bucks in protest. A few times around like that and we were back to weaving and he was happy about it. We then worked on walk trot transitions. Axel has a tendency to just come to a screeching halt and nearly fall over when you ask for a walk. So my task was to work on half-halts and get him to keep the momentum even on the down shift. Our up shifting wasn't much better either. We'd plan to trot at a certain cone but it'd take 3 more cones to get him going half the time. At this point the lesson had gone on for quite a while and Axel was trying his best to work further and further down the reins, which is fine, but when he's down that low, he wants to snatch the reins out of your hands every time he stops. Eventually we found a good point where he was listening and rounding up and we called it a day.
So we're standing there, I'm still sitting on Axel and we're discussing something. Axel starts shaking his head like he's shooing away a fly, and the bridle comes flying off. Now this is the second time this has happened. It's quite humorous to watch but I imagine it's going to get annoying if it keeps happening. I had taken the nose band off his bridle for the trail ride but I think we might have to put it back on now. That should atleast help keep the bridle on him. He must have double jointed ears or something ;)
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