More clues to everyone.

WOW. Oh, just, WOW!

I lunged Woody for a few minutes today and after the last few days I was expecting him to start off a little lame. So it was more than a surprise when he sprung into medium trot with a lovely toe-flick before his feet hit the floor with a front leg stride length that must have been double what he was doing two weeks ago. WOW. WOW. WOW. He can MOVE!!

I'm guessing that the lameness I have seen over the last few days was an adhesion that has come unstuck. If so, it's certainly not stuck now!  For about the last day he was walking with a pronounced twist inwards of his near fore. He isn't doing it as much now, but it is becoming clearer where his feet were out of alignment with his movement, which will be what caused his problems in the first place.

I am going to be so disappointed if I can't get him sound and keep him sound, I like him so much. I was so concerned when he was lame and ended up walking around repeating a mantra "all change is good, all change is good" when I saw how his feet were twisting. No doubts about his improvement today though :-)

I took Ace for a long hack up to my friend's house for coffee (me, not him :-)   He has  only done half the route before, so it was expected that he would be spooky. But I was able to confirm what I have recently discovered. If Ace is afraid of something and I try to control him, he focusses on fighting me. If I drop the reins completely and tell him to sort it out for himself, he spooks a lot, lot less. He simply does not like even a quiet supportive rein, he's much better if I drop them completely. It took some nerve to do it at first, but I'm getting used to it now.

The other thing I realised today is how much of his bucking issue is definitely mental. I have never lunged him before hacking, I just get on. And he has never bucked or been silly in any way. I had thought it was something to do with the fact that I always hack in a hi viz 1/4s sheet and that was somehow comforting to him. So today I got on, and he hunched his back. I moved him one step and he chose to release his back and was absolutely fine.

Why? Well, all the pro breakers that I know back the horse on concrete. They say that horses will not choose to buck on concrete, so it is safer. And I have to say that it felt entirely as if Ace said "sod this for a lark, I'm not about to cop a wobbler on this tarmac", and simply dropped all the tension in his back. Interesting, eh?

C