Oh look, I did get it on camera... |
He just couldn't wait THREE DAYS for farrier appt |
Oh look, I did get it on camera... |
He just couldn't wait THREE DAYS for farrier appt |
Some days I feel like this... |
On that day, it felt like this |
I think we can all agree that there is never a good time for your horse to hurt himself. However, throughout the course of Echo's travail, there have definitely been some aspects of timing serendipity.
Normally, spring/summer/fall means lots of work travel for me, chasing wildlife across 1/3 of the state. Which would have exponentially ratcheted up the stress of having to care for him off-property (yes, next-door, but still another place I needed to be). But the pandemic meant drastically less field work due to logistical difficulties & virtually no overnight travel.
It also turned out that Echo wasn't the only one who needed me around. In one of those in-a-flash mishaps that horses excel at, Trainer Neighbour (TN) broke her leg. Luckily, it didn't require a cast, just six weeks of crutches, but that really puts a kink in your ability to feed a boarding facility -- & ride your training & personal horses. I finally got a chance to feel like a Really Useful Neighbour: not only can I give a horse a schooling ride without constant supervision, I can schlep feed buckets around with the best of them & thanks to Echo, I was there every night anyway.
I actually started picking up the occasional ride before TN got hurt. She had a full schedule & needed some help keeping her lesson horse in shape & I needed to not lose all my riding muscles to sadness & atrophy. The bonus for me was that said lesson horse was Rocky: the kind of horse who makes it impossible not to smile.
Only Rocky pic I have - during which he took a nap |
And just like Solo, he is a kind chestnut with a big heart who will never stop trying for you. He has a sweet, pocket-pony personality & he makes the most adorable treat face you ever saw. Yes, he is a priceless gem.
You might have read "old QH who is the primary lesson horse" & thought, oh, that sounds like a dull ride. You would be completely wrong.
Rocky makes you smile just by being precious when you are near him, but once you start riding, that smile becomes a grin. Because he is wonderfully responsive to light aids & can give you as much forward as you may desire. And since he is 26 & honest, you have the option of letting him do his thing so you can work on yourself.
This allowed me to do things like spending an entire ride focusing on riding turns & bends off my outside aids. Or making tweaks to my position or balance without having to remind the horse to keep going. Or experiment with different corrections to see which gave a better result.
Bc riding Baby Monsters sometimes doesn't include perfect equitation, lol |
And of course, this was all re-tuning me, rebuilding lost muscle, & with his trot suspension, kick-starting my core re-development. Which prepared me for the horse we added next -- a horse who actually cares what you do with your seat & just might buck you off if you don't listen, a prospect which both interested me & dismayed me, because seat finesse is what I have the LEAST of. Similar to Solo's belief about his butt, I feel that my HQ only exist to hold my legs on.
How it went comes next...
That's right, Echo is finally back home!
I decided to go ahead & bring him home this past weekend since we were supposed to get rain this week. He was doing well in his enlarged pen & I didn't want him to backslide if I had to pen him back up just to keep him out of mud. His own paddock here drains very well & doesn't get muddy.
So with the help of the always-fabulous Erica, we marched Gabe, Solo's substitute buddy, back home next door & returned with an (aced, just so I didn't get accidentally trampled in exuberance) Echo.
True to his good nature, he has transitioned back seamlessly to annoying us here instead of next door, ha. It took him about 14 seconds to pounce on Solo's head for some Face Tag (during which Solo looked at me going, oh yeah, now I remember how annoying this kid is...). After which, he returned to his normal pastime of meandering around his paddock & watching the world exist.
Echo in full meander |
I did sit on him once last week, just walking around for a few minutes. It didn't feel great -- his feets are sore from not being on grass & his whole body felt tight. But he seemed to enjoy getting out & doing something, even if he did get bored in about three minutes. I at least know all the buttons I installed are still there. And he behaved completely, which was the most important part. He really tries so hard to be good.
No muscle, but shiny. I wore my vest just in case, but he was uber-chill |
Moving forward, I will probably just stick to light work on the longe. It's not really necessary for me to sit on him at this point & it will allow me to watch him. I will just see what he tells me he's up for. Right now, that is essentially walking. But hey, it's walking AT HOME & it's walking WITH NO STALL CLEANING anywhere in the vicinity. Vast improvements...