Dressage Lesson #23

Another dressage lesson in the dark tonight, so I'm recycling photos from when it was actually light out. I'll have to take some photos this weekend if it's not pouring rain. Axel was feeling quite feisty this evening and went for a canter right off the bat. We let him run with it even though he was on the wrong lead as usual. Since he was offering it we decided to keep asking. He was less than balanced most of the time and Tricia could hear his back feet hitting each other. And the more cantering we did, the more annoyed he got and he'd start bucking, almost real bucks this time that I had to pull him up from to get him to stop. Tricia figured he doesn't canter much because his feet hit each other. If it hurts, why do it, right? I've been putting bell boots on his back feet but I might have to add the neoprene boots as well so he's fully protected. Last tiime we put the boots on him he was not overly happy with them, they're hand-me-downs, so I might need to pick up a pair of new ones that aren't worn out. We got a few more canters out of him, ending with one that was on the correct lead but it sure wasn't fun to ride. He was pretty much pulling himself along with his front legs which makes it feel like his butt is way up in the air.

After all the excitement we worked on the spiraling in and out around a barrel. He was just about through with us at that point and wasn't really into it any more. We tried getting some circles at the trot but they were more like flattened eggs or amoebas. So we tried a large oblong shape and then a circle to try and trick him into engaging his hindquarters. Circling to the left was the toughest, and of course the last direction we went. Next time we're going to start with the left. Wow it's hard to ride in the dark though. I can't wait for it to be light out again. We'd be going around in a circle sort of okay and I'd shift my focus or move my head and off we'd go out into the pasture. And since I can't see a darn thing but the white barrel we were going around it's quite disorienting. Amazingly enough, even in the dark, he hasn't been tripping nearly as often. He kind of looses his footing once or twice in the dark but he must be picking up his feet more these days. And so far the temperature hasn't been an issue for me. I'm usually working so hard I work up a sweat even when it's only 30F outside. Luckily we've worked Axel enough this year that an hour of trotting doesn't really make him sweat at all. I should sew the straps on my cooler just incase I need to use it ever though.

After the lesson I fed Axel in the barn since the other horses were already finished eating. Tricia and Steph had to give Coco, the barn cat, a shot of wormer because he's infested pretty bad. Hopefully when the worms are gone he'll slim down a bit, he's huge these days. And since we weren't done chatting at that point, we went into Carver to a little barn to continue our conversations where it was warm.