… Wins the race”

The saddle pad finally arrived which meant time to start working Prophecy with a saddle again! So I brought him in to the round pen and started out free lunging.  He was quick focus on me.  I moved him around a little and then we put the halter and line on after doing some grooming at liberty.  I groomed him near where I stashed his saddle, pad and girth on the outside of the pen.  He kept an eye on it all, and held the flag for a while being brushed.  I walked out to grab the tack and he watched me.  He stood nicely for everything, and did not turn to nip.  I loosely got the saddle on and sent him off in a few circles slowly tightening his girth.  <somebody is a little chunky monkey at the moment too!>

I ended up setting it more forward than ideal, but he didn’t care 🙂  He moved out nicely, no bucks, no objections, following my requests and being his silly self.   We did some work on and off the line and called it good.

Wednesday the 20th started my vacation – yay!  Though I also ended up with cold just in time for it! Before our farrier consult appointment I went out and grabbed him to work in the outdoor, which is right next to his field.  Because of that fact, I drug out my tack and grooming tote before catching him figuring he’d haul the tack back in when we were done lol.  And I completely forgot the flag!  To my surprise, I didn’t need it, not even to get him into a canter.  Did a little bit of line work before adding the saddle back again, this time setting it up further back.  He was tense for saddling because his field mates came charging up out of nowhere, but still didn’t evade or dance for the process.  Again, he did great working for me, nice relaxed head for trotting – though his shifted his “sticky side” at the canter from going right/clockwise, to going left/counter-clockwise!  All part of the physical development.

Finished up, waiting on me

I set up a consult with a farrier that does composite shoes (located through Easy Care site) as I believe I want to go that route for our competitive season (when we get there!).  Prophecy was very well behaved – he isn’t normally one to stand so nicely while I stand around and chat! Maybe the ‘work’ before hand helped?  George was very nice and took at look at his feet, we talked about what our goals are and all the different options for him, and lastly he sized him up for glue on and nail on options.  He commented on how nice his feet are (size and substance) and was surprised we have had the rock sensitivity, but some horses just do.  My plan right now is to continue to “condition” his feet riding mostly barefoot and use hoof armor, I will use scoot boots on front as needed, and go for the shoes when we start to get into some competitive rides, especially to any of the boot eating rocky local rides. Of course my hope is to start out 2018 with some spring rides (after his training boot camp), but only time will tell!

He had another magna wave session to finish out the year, and while not as chill about it compared to last time, there wasn’t anything major to note in her findings.   (someone was right up in my face!)

While I really dreaded the idea of not riding, and starting over, I can see a change. He is much more relaxed, he knows what is expected of him, and he enjoys doing it.  I know I am building up step by step to be able to step back into the stirrups with him. 

It all came to a head and I decided to lunge him on the line and then free with full tack – Breast collar, crupper and bridle (and the addition of his line looped through the pommel of the saddle!). He looked pretty good!  I tried moving the pad up some, but don’t think it worked well that way. He didn’t mind it at least. Crupper hasn’t been on in 6mos+ but no reaction to it a the canter at all.  And of course he knew he was being such a good boy and nickered to me each time we stopped and I came to give him a pat.