It hasn’t been the greatest little stretch with the guys. We headed out for a ride on Friday, only to discover once we got to the strip that Bear’s back was sore and Laredo was showing signs of lameness. Brian had been going to ride Laredo, and he noticed the problem during groundwork. I watched for a while and we agreed the issue seemed to be in the left shoulder. We’re not sure when exactly this started, but looking back we think it might have been sore on and off for a while, and perhaps might have been the cause of some of the little behaviors we’ve encountered with him lately (like not wanting to walk down hills, or kicking out when asked to lope in the indoor).
So, Brian didn’t even get on. I rode Bear around for about fifteen minutes, but it was cold and his back was clearly bothering him, so we called it quits quite soon. I brought Steen in and washed his leg and we headed home.
On Saturday I gave Steen’s leg an extra long and thorough cleaning and rewrapped his tail while Brian rode Bear on the strip. Today in an attempt to find creative ways to have fun at the barn with only one rideable horse, I gave Brian a lesson. We set out cones and I directed him through many different exercises. This ended up being surprisingly fun for me. I haven’t taken an hour to just watch Brian ride Bear in a long time, and I was able to provide feedback on a few things they were trying to refine.
Ride Time: 0:15
Horseback hours YTD: 122:35