Pea gravel was delivered!
Hoorah!
The BO's decided to put pea gravel by all the horses's troughs in their paddocks to encourage foot stimulation and hardening. So excited about this and how great that they did this!
The dogs loved playing on the hill
Laz's posh paddock
He loved it! He pushed it around with his lip, and the BO's said at first, he was pawing at it wanting to roll!
He walks right in, no reservations at all.
Must feel good
Must feel good
Ahhhh cushy pea gravel
Mason playing with his friends...he could hardly see but held the frisbee like this for a while, lol!
During our ride, he just sat outside of arena and watched. He gets a little confused as to why I'm up so high I think. He doesn't like to come close or step foot in arena when we are in there working.
Laz and I had an amazing ride!!!!!
No spooking, no attitude.......well that is not 100% true. We did about 30 minutes of walk/trot work in arena. He did great with trotting in both directions. I can definitely feel him struggle in deeper sanded areas and going uphill (like within the arena..not hills) so I didn't push it with him in those areas. Slowly, slowly. We do about 80% walking, and 20% trotting-IF that. I try to push him a little for strength training BUT I am soooooooooo careful to watch his body language to see any signs of fatigue, stress or pain. It's very difficult to know that fine line and I err on the side of not pushing him.
I'm trying to convince my hubby to come out and video tape us so you can see (and so I can see) how he's looking.
Anyway, last night was beautiful-great weather, happy calm OTTB and pricked forward ears listening to my aids. He was so soft and light yesterday. He seems smooth on the trot (despite the major limp) but considering, we did great transitions, large sweeping circles and serpentines and he was so in tuned with my aids that I barely had to leg him. He is so light! All bareback and all in rope halter! No speeding up and wanting to buck and play. After our work in the arena, he seemed a little bored because he started twisting his head (as he does when being snarky or bored) out. So, I decided we should walk around the property some. Fellow blogger, Juliette, always rides her OTTBs around their property and on trails and her boys seem to love it. I personally, get a little tense thinking Laz will spook and drop me and be off running. I had to thank Laz for pushing me as a rider and doing what he wanted to do. We walked for about 10 minutes around the arena, around the round pen, in the front yard by the street and around some pine trees. Only once did he do a little nervous jig but I'm quite sure I was sending my nerves down to him, so I make a conscious effort to b-r-e-a-t-h-e and talk to him. He was great and seemed to really enjoy it. Mason even walked with us for some of the way and Laz went to nose him and Mason bolted, ha!
It was a great little ride and very peaceful. Laz took good care of me.
His legs/ankles after our ride. Yay!
I do have to take more pics of his right rear.....it's still so odd, so odd. I am still not convinced his not still rotated but I'm trusting Cliff and time will tell. For now, I try so hard to not obsess over it.
Mason sneaking in a snooze with his brother Pudgie
Pudge, our Frenchie, does not like the farm. He prefers pillows, cushion and hand fed treats.
LOL Mason with the Frisbee. Glad you and Laz are getting some work done.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that your BO put pea gravel in -- it is SO good for horses' hooves!! It gently supports and exfoliates and it just all-around feels sooooooo good to them! Foot-sore horses will apparently just stand there and take a big deep breath and relax. I really wanted some for Salem, but figured it wouldn't be worth it for just a few months. But I'm sure Laz is really enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pea gravel! Laz must love this and it is good for all the horses there too. I have it on my list of things to get to make my boys happy!
ReplyDeleteThe frisbee photo is so cute! Mason loves his farm life and city lift too. That sleeping picture with Pudgie is adorable.
Glad you and Laz got out of the ring to walk around. Sounds like he was a very good boy and made it fun for both of you. I love circling around all our trees and around the house and buildings. There is something so simple and nice for the horses to walk around and investigate and I get to ride along for fun too!
oops...I meant city "life" not lift - too early in the morning!
ReplyDeleteLove the pea gravel, what a nice thing for the BO's to do. Sounds like things are going very well with Laz. I'd be so worried about him too, but I think you have to trust Cliff on this one. Things appear to be going great so far!
ReplyDeleteGreat they put in pea gravel! I think your BOs are very special folks.
ReplyDeleteLOL at the frisbee. Um, looks familiar!
And about the foot - rotation takes time to reverse, so relax - breathe!
Very cool! I'm getting pea gravel next week for the same thing (and the added benefit of mud control lol)! How funny we did it almost at the same time hehe.
ReplyDeleteGlad he's doing so well. I love that you ride him bareback in a halter. I don't think I trusted my OTTB that much lol. He wasn't light and soft though. He was lazy and didn't listen to leg at all!