Oxygen Day

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Today the wind has quieted down. We had some blustering windstorms over the weekend that made trail riding disquieting. Its pretty hard to relax when the wind is pushing the pine trees to crackling over your head. So I made my weekend rides quick and fast and retired Q to a grassy spot for him to inhale some spring lushness. He was happy.

Today however its my turn. I decided we would do a 60 minute trail with trot and canter sets and four ravines to see how Q is holding up. We have done lots of quick/fast and long/slow rides over the last ten days so it was time to see if a moderate/fast ride would get Q winded. Im guessing his recovery time will have much improved since May 1rst. Horses recover their previous fitness levels so much faster than humans.

When I arrived at the barn I realized that the windstorms with gusts blowing at 60km/h were still very active in the area and so that dampened my enthusiasm a bit. But we headed out in record time, and started trotting within a few minutes. In our longer stretch Q offered me the most amazing jog/lope transition that had me beaming. I did most of the ride out on the buckle and was thinking of doing a post on the bonds of trust.

But that bubble popped on our way back home where Q was either bouncing, tossing his head or just reminding me that he needed to get back to the barn pronto. A new version, albeit mild, of barn sour. So we will have to fix that pretty quick. The second half of our ride he was a bit of a tool. So instead of fighting through a series of transitions, I just asked him to walk and I dropped the reins. He then took me home with relative quiet.






When he gets like this, I tend to take out my old toolkit that worked great with my QHs which was essentially transition the bajeesus out of them until they just acquiesce. Yep, that technique is totally counterproductive with Q as he becomes offended by my micromanagement and then starts thinking he is doing everything wrong and he gets vey frustrated. Like a temper tantrum.

This horse will give me much more than I ask for, but he definitely requires a different approach. An approach that he can feel like the benevolent King in all his awesomeness. Not one that has him doubting his perfection. He has a big ego.



So we ended up being out there for an hour, but with just one ravine, some nice trot sets and a few short canters. Not exactly what I planned but close enough and now I have something specific to work on.

Blue skies were nice. Hoping for some warmer weather and less wind next time.





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