Ah, this week everything returned to normal, I got to ride three times this week!  Hurrah!

Since I had not gotten to ride Merlin for two weeks I had a vague hope that Merlin would decide to move.  When I approached him while Shannon was grooming him he greeted me with a nose bump and generally did not seem too upset to see me.  Shannon said that she had no trouble catching him today, so when I mounted him I was full of hope.  We got Merlin through the gate and I got him to move a few more steps that he wanted to, then we stopped.  And we stayed stopped, today Merlin wanted to be a statue.  Here he was, a wonderfully beautiful humongous white horse, and he thought that the best thing he could do was stand there while everyone admired him.

Merlin sighed.  I did my escalation of the driving aids, Merlin stood still, though the second time he told me I was doing my legs too strong (he turned his head around and got his nose to my foot.)  So I played around, pretending that I was a cavalry man practicing wielding a saber while trying to keep both seat bones evenly in the saddle, shooting my arms out and doing big swings.  Merlin stayed still.  Today I brought out my fly whisk since the bugs are getting worse, so I practiced aiming my fly whisk at particular parts of his body, his ears, neck, shoulders, right in front of the girth, all around and under his barrel, and all over his croup.  Though his skin flinched a few times on his flank Merlin kept his feet still.  At least he did not get upset when the cane part of the fly whisk landed on him, all in all he seemed to consider the fly whisk a non-event.  Then I decided to practice my turning aids with my seat and legs, and after about ten repetitions Merlin moved ONE STEP to the side and stopped.  That was it for the first fifteen minutes of my ride.

Shannon had to go out of the ring because her mother wanted her to check out a spot on Magic’s neck, and Shannon pulled out a thorn that had gone in just under the skin.  When Shannon came back to the ring, I started my driving aids, Shannon called Merlin to her, and Merlin finally moved.  We followed Shannon around the ring, Shannon at the fence and Merlin around 10 feet to the inside as I tried to get Merlin to move away from Shannon, then back nearer to her.  I finally got him pointed completely away from Shannon, he walked around six steps and slammed on the brakes.  So we stood there for several minutes, at least we were pointed AWAY from Shannon, while I tried to see what Merlin was watching in the woods.  I told him to go back to Shannon which was what he wanted, and she gave him a good ear rub for being so brave and standing for a few minutes not seeing her.  I got him moving again, we walked half-way around the ring, and we stopped once more.  Then I got Merlin walking again, got him aimed away from Shannon, and I finally got Merlin to walk at the fence around the entire ring.  He was not moving as smoothly as usual, I think that today he may have been reluctant to move because of various aches and pains.  So I stopped my ride after this success and slid down the mountain getting off.

When I rode Mick on Wednesday for my lesson, I told Debbie about my walking blog and the comments I got, especially the comment on how it takes 15 minutes of walking to get the synovial fluid moving, and asked her permission to spend the first 15 minutes of my 30 minute lesson just walking as an experiment to see if it improved Mick’s movement.  Usually I spend around five minutes walking.  Debbie drilled us at the walk, three speeds of the walk, many turns winding around the jumps, more three speed work going from the slowest walk I could get him to do, then sending him forward into the most extended walk he could do comfortably.  Mick did all of this with good will and a cheerful face.  When the time came I put Mick into a posting trot and lo and behold Mick stopped dragging his inside hind leg at the trot and started picking it up.  It worked!  Mick was moving better, he was moving well enough that Debbie had me refining his normal trot and also practice the sitting trot, and Mick continued picking up the inside hind leg and did not drag it through the sand.  I told Debbie that she might want to get his little owner to walk him for 15 minutes before her lesson just to get the joint fluid moving, to see if it helped in a 60 minute lesson as much as it did in my 30 minute lesson.  Hopefully this will make Mick happier with being ridden.  He is so cooperative and obedient, I just want him to enjoy being ridden more.

Friday I got to ride Mia.  Nowadays Mia greets me as an old friend when my son brings her in out of the pasture, gently touching me with her nose and looking at me with gentle eyes.  Joe groomed, I rasped her toes down, we tacked up and walked to the ring.  When we started our ride I decided to do the same 15 minutes of walking around.  As we were going down the long side of the ring there were four Canadian geese parading in a row on the other side of the fence.  Just as we passed the goose in the front something spooked them and all four took off with a great flapping of wings and honking.  Mia, startled, moved on step to the side, and stopped when I gave her my freeze aid, both reins applied and held for a moment before the release (as opposed to an immediate release.)  She froze in place and I praised her a lot, horses will shy and I really value a horse that will stop after one step!

So we went on walking for the 15 minutes before we trotted, but Mia’s improvement was nowhere as dramatic as Mick’s.  Still, except for the goose take-off, it was a peaceful day, and, as always, Mia gave me the best ride that she could.  I love, Love, LOVE riding Mia, for all that she is around 30 years old and pretty much permanently lame, she has accepted my many faults, she obeys me to the best of her ability, and she is honest to the core.  I had tried the same shims in my Corrector pad as I use on Mick now since Mia shows many of the same symptoms, but I do not think Mia was completely comfortable, so next week I will go back to her normal shimming (one on each side in the back) and see if the 15 minute initial walk helps her more than this week.

Between Mick and Mia I use the same saddle, pad, and headstall, but until the summer heat sets in and messes up my hands they both use different bits, Mick has the Show Pelham, Mia the Mullen mouth snaffle, and am I glad that it is easy to change bits on the Micklem multi-bridle now that I have enough of my made-up longer bit straps!  Of course I could ride Mick in the Mullen mouth snaffle too, but I like to practice with the double set of reins a few months a year.  Manipulating the four reins really helps me grow new nerve pathways down to my hands and I find that now I am dropping things a lot less.  Since Mia was abused with a curb bit sometime in her past she will not settle down with any bit that has a curb chain so Mick is the only horse I ride with whom I can use the double set of reins.  Now I will have to change the shimming on the Corrector pad between Mick and Mia.  They already have separate girths, Mia is rounder in the barrel than Mick is and takes a longer girth even through Mick is several inches taller than her.  I am fortunate I can use my ancient Stubben Siegfried on both.  Of course the giant, Merlin needs a whole different bridle (Spirit bitless), girth (dressage), saddle (Wintec Wide) and a Corrector pad with front shims.  Good thing I have a good tack collection!

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran