Maintaining

In Yoshi's and my last lesson with JT, right before he started down the mild injury --> cellulitis train, she got on him. We were working on the combination of not pulling on the inside rein/not diving through the inside shoulder/powering more from the outside hind. I struggle more with this tracking right because of my inability to turn my body properly going right and my desire to compensate for that by pulling on the right rein. She ended up getting after him much more tracking left because he DID NOT want to weight that outside (right) hind. He got a bit dramatic about it with some flailing and running sideways when she insisted that the proper response to using her right leg was to engage his right hind. Eventually after he re-installed his brain, he started to understand. It was kind of nice to see that even pissed off his reaction is really pretty rideable. 

I only sat on him for about 10 minutes after, he was pretty tired. But it was amazing how different the feel was. I used the right leg and BAM more activity. So now it is on me to make sure that when I use leg I mean it and reinforce a response if it isn't instant and active. Otherwise he'll need this re-education again, and it will be all my fault. I voiced my concerns with replicating the feel at home and JT recommended I come down the next two days in a row. We had that all set up... but then Friday happened. And yeah... all downhill from there. 

I got to ride Mr. GY's horse this morning under Ms. GY's guidance. He's an 11 YO OTTB and has much more of an education than Yoshi. It was actually a great follow up to my last lesson. She said he would like to pretend he doesn't know what you're talking about when you ask him to get off the inside shoulder and carry himself, but if you insist then he absolutely will/can. I practiced the light leg then immediate tap if he didn't listen. He responded really well to that and then moved over from the light leg the rest of the ride. I was playing catch up a bit though, every time we changed directions he'd dive onto the inside and try to motorcycle which I would then correct. Ideally I'd be able to keep that from happening at all. Obviously plenty to work on still, but he and Ms. GY together made excellent teachers.  

Tomorrow Yoshi comes off stall rest. I plan to pull his bandage in the morning, ride him lightly, and then turn him out. He'll be going out in boots in case he decides to galivant to celebrate his freedom. Assuming he feels good and that the truck is functional, I'm going to go down to JT on Thursday and Friday to pick up where we left off. 

And now for an "most unflattering picture" comparison. This is the way he stands when he sees something interesting/scary in the distance. Obviously in the May picture being wet is highlighting his ribs, but either way there is definite improvement in both weight and muscle. Stall rest + fat supplement + lunch are finally catching up to us. 

August 14th

May 1st