Somehow we managed to go from having our best ride ever to our worst ride ever within a span of two days.
Oh, it started all right. Walk warm up, stepping over poles with nary a bump. Trot warm up, some figure eights, some trot poles without any touches. We weren’t overly energetic, but the bending lesson had stuck and we were navigating corners beautifully and going nice and straight down the long sides.
Then we trotted over some poles, and Ace caught his back foot. He didn’t even hit it hard …

We are still moving forward … in more ways than one.
1. Under Saddle Training
Ace  has grown very sensitive to my legs and takes very little pressure to respond appropriately. We are now doing walk, trot, canter regularly and have even gotten some transitions straight to canter from a walk. He is very energetic and forward at the trot especially. He’s starting to pick up his energy and pace at the walk too.
I also discovered the other day that Ace will turn with just leg cues. I still have a lot …

My boy Ascension (I need to practice calling him that) has some of the most expressive eyes I’ve seen on a horse. They’re big, liquid-brown windows to his soul.
Last Friday, I showed up in the barn dark-and-early at 6 am to do chores. Typically my horse is happy to see me and trots up to me with ears pricked and looking for treats (he has learn to do that with manners, by the way). But this time he blinked his bleary eyes a few times, and stood on the other …

Ace is starting to get fit, and I’m starting to see a new horse emerge.
The wooly, pokey, grumpy faced horse is turning into an energetic, interested, flashy mover.
When we started doing lunging working a few weeks ago to start building up some fitness, Ace was seriously grumpy with me. He did it, but definitely not with a good attitude, and definitely not with a lot of personal motivation. But I’ve kept at it, gradually asking for more and more trot work on the lunge or under saddle.
Last night I didn’t …

One of the lessons Ace taught me back in the fall when we were starting under saddle is that he doesn’t like to feel pressured. I was asking too much at first, go forward, be energetic, stay straight, bend on the turns. And it was just too much for my horse who had been standing in a pasture for two years. He taught me that I needed to just focus on one thing at a time. And when I did, everything else started falling into place, too.
When we finally started …

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my horse lately. Instead of ropes and carrot sticks and saddles, however, it has involved epsom salts, rubber tubs, lugging hot water, vet wrap and a lot of duct tape.
I noticed that he was just a hair off in his left hind the day before Thanksgiving. It was a minor hitch, so I wasn’t too worried. Three days later, he had a cut above his heel. On closer examination, it was apparent that he had an abscess that burst. It was …

… with my horse and my blog!
It’s been a crazy month here. Family emergency and several days out of town with a grandparent in the hospital, Thanksgiving travels, planning and attending a surprise [50th] birthday party for my mom (she reads this and all of my comments, so feel free to leave your best wishes ), work stuff, and other life stuff, I’ve been out of the loop. Also, with losing Classic last week and Ace having that abscess, I’ve been all out of sorts. He’s finally on the …