PolarSkye
Well-Known Member
Kali's progress this week coming back into work has been a bit stop/start, partly due to the appalling weather and partly due to him becoming footsore/being shod in front. He is still only working in walk under saddle, but Em will introduce trot work tomorrow. We went into the forest for the first time (with a fellow livery and her lovely horse) last Sunday and he didn't put a hoof wrong. Since then he's been shod, long-lined in the school and then yesterday I long-lined him round the gallops . . . lots of lovely hill work. I figured it would be good for his confidence to be out front. He was very, very good . . . we had horses galloping up alongside us, traffic whizzing past (with a fence and a hefty bank between us and the road), flapping plastic bags and a very scary white plastic water drum. He did get a little joggy, but came right back to me and I made a point of keeping the contact as light as possible. We did have a lively discussion about not turning off the gallops to go "home" . . . but I persisted and after several circles he went where I wanted him to go and even though he trotted a few steps past the turning point, he still did as he was told. I was very, very pleased with him.
Today I had planned on braving the gallops by myself but our hacking buddy from Sunday was going out too so we went out together. Again, Kal was a good boy . . . at one point the noise from the road got to him a little bit and he tried to climb into Sevi's lap . . . poor Sev objected (and justifiably so) - kicked out at Kal and although we didn't see any marks on Kal both Janet and I thought that Kal didn't look quite right - he felt quite short underneath me, so I hopped off. Miraculously, the little monkey was immediately sound so I found a cross country jump to use as a mounting block and got back on. We continued the hack without incident (aside from Kal taking umbrage at a livery chucking a bale of shavings right as we came round a corner) and he got lots and lots of pats and some polos.
Tomorrow (assuming the school isn't too frozen), Em is doing jump club - she won't be jumping, just doing some poles in walk and trot, but it's a good way to get him working calmly in the school with her on board and alot going on. Sunday, Janet/Sevi and Kal/I are hacking again . . . we'll stay in walk (ground's too hard to risk doing anything else) but will tackle some of the hills in the forest. My goal for this week is to get out at least as far as the field between us and the forest on our own by next Friday . . . fingers crossed!
P
Today I had planned on braving the gallops by myself but our hacking buddy from Sunday was going out too so we went out together. Again, Kal was a good boy . . . at one point the noise from the road got to him a little bit and he tried to climb into Sevi's lap . . . poor Sev objected (and justifiably so) - kicked out at Kal and although we didn't see any marks on Kal both Janet and I thought that Kal didn't look quite right - he felt quite short underneath me, so I hopped off. Miraculously, the little monkey was immediately sound so I found a cross country jump to use as a mounting block and got back on. We continued the hack without incident (aside from Kal taking umbrage at a livery chucking a bale of shavings right as we came round a corner) and he got lots and lots of pats and some polos.
Tomorrow (assuming the school isn't too frozen), Em is doing jump club - she won't be jumping, just doing some poles in walk and trot, but it's a good way to get him working calmly in the school with her on board and alot going on. Sunday, Janet/Sevi and Kal/I are hacking again . . . we'll stay in walk (ground's too hard to risk doing anything else) but will tackle some of the hills in the forest. My goal for this week is to get out at least as far as the field between us and the forest on our own by next Friday . . . fingers crossed!
P
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