Living dangerously

Heh. As if getting on a trained horse in an enclosed arena and riding around at a walk after lunging is dangerous. I'm either getting old or wise.

The dangerous part is that Brian went to work with Rick today, so I am home alone (with a lot to do; what am I doing here? Oh yeah; documenting!). The forecast showers hadn't moved in yet, so I decided to tack up Larry and lunge him in my saddle. Since he is so slight, I used my CorrecTOR to improve my saddle's fit for him (even used my CorrecTOR saddle pad). I have both because years ago Russell and I were sponsored by Len Brown, the inventor of the CorrecTor and the founder of the Ortho-Flex saddle company. Russell was my "prince and the pea" horse and he didn't like the CorrecTOR, but it is an excellent saddle fitting system for many horses and Rick has distributed quite a few to clients for Len.

Anyway, after lunging him as usual (during which I managed to capture some good shots - like all four off the ground in the third and fourth!)
you know I had to get on and ride him around. :-) My legs belong around a horse! Larry was very good, other than not knowing that my horses are expected to stand by the arena fence for mounting, so that I don't have to torque the saddle tree by putting weight in a stirrup.

Now I'd better get to work on inside stuff....

Tracking up

In spite of the weather, so far I've managed to find time every day to lunge Larry. I had hoped to get on him last night after chores, but then I ended 'home alone' because of Russell's colic (Brian was in bed so couldn't have called for help). Larry hasn't given me any reason to feel insecure, but accidents can happen with any horse.

Today I attempted to capture some shots of Larry's lovely trot:
He doesn't always look this good, of course, but there are lots of promising moments!

Russell and Reckless

Last night, I got a call on my cell phone that gripped my heart with icy fingers. It was Russell's new mom, not sure whether she should call me or Rick first. Russell was colicking, in obvious discomfort with a heart rate of 70 bpm. Rick headed out to see what he could do, and I prayed.

Rick got home three hours later bearing good news, and Tami called this morning to say that Russell is still doing well, eating and drinking and comfortable. She told me again how wonderful he is, and repeated what her evening chore girl had said: "He's such a nice horse; he can't get sick!" I'm so glad to be posting about a happy outcome!

Then I saw this little film clip on a dressage blog I follow. Like the narrator says, Reckless' story deserves to be told, so I'm doing what I can to that end. Grab a tissue; here's to great horses!

Going to work

Larry looks less gaunt already. He doesn't seem buffaloed by Sam anymore and is drinking and eating better. He is a personable fellow, and was quite tidy in his space last night, using a small portion of his paddock for elimination and keeping his stall clean and dry.

This morning I got an old bridle that was my Swedish warmblood mare's fitted to Larry (he doesn't like flash attachments, and Russell's bridle has one), tacked him up with lunging surcingle and loose side reins, and took him out for a short lunging session. He is not as well trained on the lunge line as I'm used to, but I'm already seeing progress there, too. I took some photos of him at the walk; one of these days I'll have to get help to try and capture his trot for you; it is lovely.

Thirsty Larry!

(Why yes, this IS the "Larry channel" now. Why do you ask?)

This morning after chores I took Larry to the arena for a little exercise. Rick needed to see him move on the lunge line to finish the pre-purchase evaluation; there was no place to lunge him where we picked him up yesterday. Even though I am only leasing Larry, it is good to make sure we don't have any known problems going in.

Anyway, after a few rounds Larry stopped - I thought to check out the shiny puddles. Then I realized he was drinking from them!

I had noticed this morning that Sammy (the "old man" from a recent post) was making snake-eyes at Larry whenever Larry went out into his paddock. They are in adjoining stalls and paddocks and share a stock tank, so I'm guessing that Sammy hasn't let "the new guy" drink. Poor Larry; we gave him a private water tub for now. Sammy has been at the bottom of the pecking order for awhile; I guess he saw a chance to elevate his status and jumped on it!

As you can see, Larry-boy is in poor condition (although he looks a bit worse for his "dry" night here). I won't be doing much under saddle until he builds up some protective back muscle and fat, which will let me enjoy watching his nice, big gaits from the end of the lunge line. I had my eye on a schooling show in March, but I think that would be pushing it. Better to take our time.

Meet Larry

We worked out a satisfactory lease with his owner, and brought Larry home this evening. Larry is an eight-year-old Danish WB/Arabian cross, and has competed through First Level dressage. But it's been awhile since he's had any regular work, and it shows.

So we have our work cut out for us, but I'm looking forward to the challenge of getting him in shape and bringing him back up to - and beyond - his previous level of training. We'll start with lunging in side reins to start building up his topline and belly muscles, and go from there. I plan to take him to some schooling shows this season, and hopefully on some horse-camping trips as well!

Still looking

I won't be picking up the possible lease on Sunday; we still haven't ironed out all the wrinkles in the lease agreement. Not that the owner is unreasonable; she has accepted the vast majority of our suggested changes. But my husband is an equine veterinarian, which means he knows all the worst-case scenarios and so will never be completely comfortable with the risks of leasing a horse. And truth be told, I would rather have a horse of my own if possible.

Rick thinks I should have kept Russell, but he doesn't understand that walking and jogging around the arena and infrequent easy trail rides, all while worrying that Russell might "break" again, is not the relationship I want to have with a horse. (And Russell never cared to interact much with humans on the ground.)

Enter a new possibility. My friend Laura is the Craigslist queen, and she has had her eye on a horse she found advertised there. We were chatting on the phone today about our horse-shopping woes, when she said, "YOU should go look at this mare!" Then she forwarded me the Craigslist ad link, and the owner's phone numbers. The mare, a rescued OTTB, looks nice and sounds nicer. I've talked to the owner on the phone, and she's sending me more photos and a couple videos. If I still like what I see, I'm hoping to go see her on Sunday. I know better than to get my hopes up, but it's too late....