Saddle fit, cool transitions and hooves!

Sorry for all the post today. This has been the first chance I have had to get caught up. This will be the last post for today though ;)

This morning I went out and played with Prince, even though it looked like it could rain any minute. I had a new shimming pattern in my theraflex and I wanted to try it out.

Prince followed me over at Liberty to the gate where the halter was. I am trying to think of new things that I can do with Prince. Doing the same things [in this case haltering] differently. Prince was really good. He just stood there while I got the halter ready [I took a little extra longer because I wanted to see what he would be ;)] Prince did have some trouble bending his head for the halter. Not sure why, he is normally great. So I played with the horse that showed up. We spent about 5 minutes at it, rewarding the slightest try, and finally Prince got it.

I attached my savvy string to my halter. I wanted to have something a little bit lighter on the halter. I wasn't quite brave enough to saddle Prince at Liberty so I figured this would be the next step. Prince will stand still while I saddle him and the rope will be on the ground not problem but I wasn't making any assumptions ;). 

Prince stood fine the whole time. Then we played a little bit with just the 6ft of rope. It was so much fun! We did sideways towards and away, circles w/t/c!!!! Change of directions, transitions, yo-yo and some more!! It was so cool!!

After that we went up to the riding ring. We did driving from zone 5 up the hill. I am trying to give Prince more rope than I normally do. I left the belly of the rope on the ground. It will really help our Liberty. When we got up to the riding ring we did some Sideways over two tires from 20ft away. Then we did some totally AMAZING walk to canter [and back down again] transitions. Prince was SO in tune and had a lot of energy to give me. It was so cool!!!! All I had to do to get him to walk was relax and lift my stick a little bit then once he had walked about 1/2 a lap I would pick up my energy and he would go into the canter and canter for a laps or two then I would do it again. Our transitions have never been that good before!!! Prince is so amazing!!!

I brought Prince in after that and gave him a rest. I couldn't believe how hot it was this morning!! It is the first day of fall and it is almost warmer then it was all summer!! Prince was even sweating! Which come to think of it it is not a bad thing. He needs to loose weight. So he is on a weight loss program.... well not really but I do have a lot of cantering in mind for the next couple weeks.... or months depending on how long it takes for him to loose that fat tummy ;) I wouldn't over do it though. So you don't need to worry about that ;) ;)

Anyways. Then I played with picking up Prince's back feet. I had done his front ones in the corral. He was so good and let me hold them, pick them out, move them around etc. I started by just giving his back legs a good massage. He really liked that. The really nice thing that was Prince's tail was perfectly still!!! Hooray!! No more getting hit in the face when you are trying to pick up his back feet! I totally understand why Prince was doing it though. I would have to if I went through what he did. I rewarded the slightest try and when Prince took the weight on his foot I released. He is so soft!!! Phase one the whole time!!! Pretty soon Prince handed me his foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He has only done that once or twice before!!!! He let me hold it and pick it out. It was SOOOOOOOOOO nice!!!!!! Prince got oats for that [yes I know there goes the weight loss program ;) but I would rather have a fat horse that will hand me his feet then a slim horse that won't pick his feet up ;)]

Then I went to the other back leg. That leg was a little big harder but I knew that before because it has always been the harder leg. Prince did really well though and let me hold it and get most of it picked out. I was so proud of Prince!!!! He did so well!! Then I sent him over to the pedestal and asked him to climb up with all four feet and stay there while I unsaddled him. There was only a little bit of ruffled hair and it was were one of the shims were. Hmmmmm How interesting!! I am going to try a thin shim there instead next time. Even though I wanted to ride I wanted to see if there was any ruffed hair because it might have been from me. So at least we are getting some where.

Prince stayed on the pedestal even after I let him go. Then after I couple minutes I asked him to get off. I guess the little bit of ground tying work that we have done has payed off!!! I let Prince out to eat some grass on the little strip  of grass that is around the riding ring. We keep it fenced off because it is kind of small for all four horses to be in there at the same time but we let one horse in there every once now and then.

When I came back to let Prince out he came right over to me when I called him. He is such a sweet horse!! He followed me over to the gate and the slowly walked part way down the hill. I had gone back into the riding ring to get my saddle and other equipment and when I turned around there is Prince coming back into the riding ring!!! He came back to be with me!!! I was surprised but it was a nice surpise!! Prince waited with me while I picked up everything then followed me down the hill into the corral. It was a really good ending to a really good play time!!

~K