Prince: Trimming and playing!

December 2 2010

This morning I trimmed Prince and also played with him a little bit. He stood pretty well for the most part. Part way through I decided to go onto the front yard and let both of us stretch a little. We got some nice circles with changes of direction at the trot on the12ft line, yo-yo's with lightness, speed and distance, and sideways at a trot without a fence!! It was incredible! Plus when we were going to the right (Prince's hard side) Prince picked up the trot while going sideways, instead of me having to send him in a small half circle and then ask him to go sideways. It was really really cool!

We also played with driving the hindquarters and then bringing the forequarters around and moving them. Prince and I have done this before but today I wanted to see if I could keep the same rhythm and speed through out the whole thing. Prince moves his hindquarters away a lot easier than his forequarters so I knew our challenge would be in keeping the lightness and speed while driving them. I have to make sure that I was keeping the same rhythm and speed in my body and it actually went really well. Prince was a little bit worried at first since I was asking for more but when he caught on he was okay.

The rest of the trim went well and Prince stood well for it. I have switched to trimming them every five weeks and that seems to be working out alright. It will be nice to have a week off, even if it is every four weeks. However, if I see that their feet are getting worse I will switch back. But so far Prince and Twosox's have been well. Now Ruffian's and Knightly's might be worse because their feet have always been worse but hopefully they will be alright also.

Naturally,

~Keri