Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

Oh, What a Beautiful Day!

Gorgeous weather. Too chilly to swim, actually, although I suspect the water would have felt nice and warm. Since I've been swimming every day, I opted out, using today as my rest from swimming day. 

That did not stop me from other pursuits, or events beyond my control. 

Yesterday, I rode Tucker. As we circled the arena, I heard the dreadful "clink" of loose horseshoe hitting the little pebbles.  I managed to finish the ride with no consequences. We did the usual exercises at the walk and trot. His left pirouette is definitely improving, but after riding Chance today, I think I may have discovered part of the problem--more later. Half pass at the trot in both directions was OK, but not spectacular. Since I was worrying about the shoe, I didn't press the point, nor did I try any half pass at canter. Since it was pretty hot, I only worked for about 25-30 minutes with much of it at the walk. 

When we came in, I inspected the loose shoe and made an attempt to wrap it with some very good duct tape to see if I could keep it on until my farrier could get here. 

Fast forward to today. Morning brought absolutely glorious, cool weather.  My vet was coming at 9 AM to examine Toby's eye again, so the morning was occupied. We are a bit disappointed to report that while his eye is better, it's still not completely healed. So I will continue to put in the three medications to keep it from developing any kind of secondary infection, I just be patient. Toby is 23 and has Cushings, so either factor could be part of the slow healing. 

As the vet was leaving, I saw Tucker--I'd locked him in his stall while we worked on Toby--take a really lame step. I went into his stall to see the loose shoe totally askew on his hoof so he was actually standing on the clinch. Thinking the shoe was still attached, I rushed out to stop the vet before she left. She has studied horse shoeing and has a set of tools, so odds were she could get the shoe off far better than I. 

We brought Tucker into the aisle--very painfully--and as I lifted his foot, the shoe fell off into my hand. Lucky that. But the clinch had cut the sole of his foot. Dr. Parisio cleaning it out, trimmed a little hoof away from the cut and told me to soak and wrap it for a few days until Scott, my farrier could get here. 

More doctoring, and now, no way of riding Tucker in the lovely cool air. 

After I wrapped Tuck's foot, I headed to the feed store to get some more shavings for his stall, a super deal on the feed I get for Toby--a free bag--and some fly spray on super sale. 

Back home, I spent some time poo picking the riding arena, and then I saddled up Chance.  

We had a good school. Slowly but surely, Chance is getting more consistent about stretching into the bit as a matter of choice. 

But the lightbulb moment hit when I had trouble getting him to do a left turn on the haunches--the same direction I'm having trouble with Tucker's walk pirouette. I suddenly realized that when I turned to the right, I was dropping my right knee and sinking into my right seat bone.  On the left, I was shortening my leg and trying to push him over to the left with my right seatbone. Duh.

As soon as I dropped my left knee and sank my weight into the left seat bone, around he went, as nice as you please. Now this is a horse with minimal training compared to Tucker. Of course, with the missing shoe there was no way to test my corrected riding on Tuck, but for know I will presume it will work the charm the next time I ride him. 

It's supposed to warm up again tomorrow, but the break was an absolute delight.