Luckily for us in NC the weather decided to switch back from early summer to spring, so this week we have cool mornings and the afternoons will be pleasant.  The horses are still shedding so that they are not completely unprotected from the cooler temperatures.  Plus the gnats did not descend upon us until I started my ride.  Yeah for cooler weather!

Merlin was not very cooperative with me today.  I do not know if he is afraid that his cooperation will bring back his old nightmares of being COMPELLED to obey or if he decided that I needed to work on my patience more.  I sat upon this giant horse, completely dependent on his cooperation, so while he stood I pretended he was one of the “horses” in the gym except Merlin does not have those convenient grab bars.  Today I found out that if I STRETCHED my arm I could reach to the bottom of his neck in front and give him a good scratch there.  Merlin enjoyed that.  Then I practiced trying to keep my seat bones in the same place on the saddle seat as I twisted my torso around, not very successfully, but at least Merlin is so big that my movements did not seem to bother his stability much.  Then we stood some more while I told Merlin and Shannon how some scientists now think that the dinosaur T. Rex had feathers.  Just think, T. Rexes could have come in bright colors.  I guess I was hoping that Merlin would imagine a feathered T. Rex coming after him and move, but Merlin did not seem to have dinosaurs in his imagination today.

In fact Merlin seemed sort of irate today.  He stomped his hind foot twice when he thought I was being too demanding.  The few times he consented to move he was very reluctant to let me steer him.  I was glad to have the Spirit bitless bridle on him, since the cross-under straps are rounded instead of flat Merlin can’t LEAN against the rein very well, so I at least had a ghost of a chance to get him to move in another direction using a pulsating rein.  We had a few discussions, and part of the time he actually went in the direction I wanted him to, for a few steps, before he would abruptly stop and plant his feet.  Then we stood some more with me occasionally going through my escalation of driving aids and he started moving one front foot BACK, not forward.  I told Shannon if he got too much into backing I would have to make him back up for a good distance and I would have to rely on her to tell me if he was backing into the arena fence.  I think Merlin understood this conversation, he would start backing one step, I would ask him to turn with my seat, he would start turning and then start walking forward, just for a few steps.  It got to the end of my half-hour and I told Shannon I wanted to end my ride with him going around the ring at the fence once.  Shannon started walking a circle near the center of the ring, Merlin started walking in response to my leg squeeze, I got Merlin to the fence, and we made one circumference of the ring, I told him to go to Shannon, stopped and got off.  Merlin may not have understood my conversation about T. Rexes but he seemed to understand when I talked about making him back up a lot, and also when I stated what I wanted him to do before I would consent to end the ride.

All is not hopeless though.  I successfully kept him from stopping at the gate and from stopping to visit the other horses when they came up to the fence.  He grumbled, of course!

On Wednesday I got my lesson from Debbie on Mick.  Mick, as always, started off very stiff and not really wanting to move.  Reluctant to turn to the right, reluctant to let me post on the left diagonal, and reluctant to extend at the walk though he did extend some at the trot.  Tired of not really getting any real improvement I asked Debbie’s permission to experiment with the shims of my Corrector pad.  Len Brown, the guy who developed the Corrector, has a page on his web site on how to use the shims to strengthen a weak hind leg.  I had used this successfully on Glow, an Arab gelding I used to ride at Debbie’s stable several years ago, who was the best horse I had ever ridden in spite of his faults.  Glow had a very weak left hind, when he walked a person on the ground could see his left hock go out to the side as he put his weight on it whether there was a rider on his back or not.  When I got my first Corrector pad to use on him I got the idea to see if this technique would work on him.  It took several months, but the last time I saw Glow before he returned to his breeder, as he was walking away from me, his left hind was straight and not bowing out at all.  So I reminded Debbie of our earlier success and she said she would let me try it next week.  So I reread the page on how to do this, and I am putting 2 shims in on the left front, one shim in on the left rear, shortening my left stirrup a hole and lengthening my right stirrup a hole.  Len says to shorten and lengthen the leathers two holes but I cannot cope with that since my balance is so bad.  This is what I did with Glow and it seemed to work fine with him, and in spite of the uneven shims and stirrup leathers I did not feel out of balance after the first few minutes of my rides.

I am not totally sure I am doing this right.  I do know that when Mick stands he keeps most of his weight on his left fore, so I am going on from there.  Len says that when a horse keeps most of his weight on one fore leg that side of his forehand sinks causing the saddle to come up against the side of the wither on the opposite side, sort of causing the horse to twist his back trying to avoid the discomfort, causing the horse to put even more weight on his preferred foreleg.  I had been hoping that between good riding and the chiropractor treatments that Mick would improve, but his improvements have proven to be fleeting.  If this looks like this is working I will be able to shim Debbie’s Corrector for 17” saddles so that the little girls that ride him can use it.  If it does not seem to work or if this upsets Mick I can try using the double front shims on his other side.  It just breaks my heart that this wonderful horse Mick, who is probably even better than Glow, is not comfortable when I ride him.  Mick always tries to do his best, but every once in a while I get these incredible gaits out of him once he is warmed up so I know that, if I can find the right remedy, Mick will turn out to be the best horse I’ve ever ridden.  Wish us luck and success!

I was going to ride Mia on Friday but I woke up to rain,  The rain let up in time for my ride but the temperature was in the mid 30’s F with a cold north wind, and all I could think was that Mia’s arthritis would be acting up, just like my husband’s gout was acting up.  She would not have enjoyed being ridden at all and I would have been wet and cold.  Maybe next Friday will be better, a little warmer, less wind, and no rain, and I will be able to ride this wonderful mare.

If you want to read about the Corrector pad and using the shims on an one-sided horse his site is at thecorrector.net, on Page 11, "Saddle Fit"  Fixing the One-sided Horse (the pages are listed in a column on the left side of the screen.)

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran