The long and winding road

Still no beach photos from my husband's phone; not holding my breath there. I rode Lance again the day after our beach ride, briefly putting him through his paces. He was okay, nothing bad, but kind of "meh." When I was putting him away, I ran my hands over his hips front to back, on either side of his spine. He had a BIG muscle knot on the left; it didn't seem particularly sore, but it wasn't there the week before. Rats.

I called my friend Laura and talked out my thoughts with her. My intuition usually has a pretty good handle on what to do, but then I like to run it by someone I trust for confirmation. The upshot is that I am staying completely off Lance's back for now. He's getting almost daily time on pasture to move around, and I'm lunging him with just a halter and lunge line (for now) when I can to keep him conditioned. When I get the wide-tree saddle from Mike Corcoran to try, I'll schedule another session with Suzan to check saddle fit, and then take a long-lining lesson from her.

For now I'll leave you with a happy pony rolling in the grass, then deciding to eat while he's down there (Breezy is going down for a roll behind him in that last photo). ;-)