I've been off work since Christmas eve at 2:00 and you know I had to drive straight to the barn to get in a Christmas eve ride. Unfortunately the footing outside was not good so we had to settle for the arena, but that's okay. It was a ride.
G really seems to like the Dr. Cook's bridle. Again, not having a bit in his mouth seems to be one of his main issues. He was always trying to find a comfortable spot, but in most cases would go behind the bit to get rid of the contact. Well, with this rig I have contact and he's happy with it. No trying to duck anywhere. Needless to say this has allowed him to relax more, and in return he is delivering a wonderful 4-beat walk, flat walk AND I got another 4-5 strides of the true running walk I've only ever felt on one Walker. The feel of both the push from the hind and the pull from the front is simply exhilarating! When I asked him to whoa I laid on his neck and gave him another great big hug! Liz really put us on the right track!
I've ridden him three times this week. Mostly in the arena due to the weather, but we've stuck with doing long and low walk work, some shoulder in and fore, and canter departures. What did Liz tell me? Oh yeah, this kind of work is like "watching paint dry" lol. Yep, some days that's what it feels like, but now I have a clear picture in my mind of the end goal. So if I have to be a little bored, so be it! When we finish 30-45 minutes, I dismount and we walk to cool down. He still follows me around at liberty, so I'm ready to play some games with him again tomorrow afternoon. I think it will do us both some good. I'm going to ask hubby to build us a pedestal using a truck tire (saw this on a link on the GHS board) cause it looks really sturdy. Main reason why I've avoided this type of work is I didn't want to spend the money for the real deal, and if we built something flimsy and G got hurt or it broke underneath him, that would be the last time we ever attempted somthing like that.
Today I'm giving G the day off to just be a horse and do his thing. It's time to take Ozzy to the vets for a weigh in and to pick up his heartguard medicine. I'm almost afraid to see how much he weighs now as he is becoming a BIG dog. But he's absolutely gorgeous.
Christmas has come and gone so quickly and a new year is upon us. I hope that 2009 brings us closer to our property in Tennessee, but if not then we'll wish the same again for 2010. We have our health and we have each other and that makes us both happy.
Happy New Year from Kate, Zeke, G, Holly, Buster & Ozzy
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