To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Good thing he's a gelding...

...because I don't think Lance's genes should be perpetrated – no matter how handsome and personable he is!
My son taking advantage of my laid-back mustang

My big, red goober has yet another diagnosis on his rap sheet now: metabolic disorder (the equine equivalent of type-2 diabetes). That's what the blood work indicates, so now I've added Thyroxinen L to his daily meds and supplements. Hopefully it'll help him shed some of the excess weight....

We finally got a break from the extreme heat we were experiencing, so Lance and I have resumed some activity. We rode around the hill on Monday evening, and Tuesday morning I lunged him. I wanted to see how he handled himself bitted up, even though I was worried what might happen if he tripped. Fortunately he only stumbled once with a back foot before I attached the side reins and not once after, even though I put him through all three paces.



While I will continue to ride and love my mental health crisis mustang, I find myself jonesing for a horse I can dance with again. Student #1 resumed lessons again yesterday with her gorgeous, sensible young OTTB after being out of town for awhile. The OTTBs I've known in my past life didn't interest me at all, but now I'm spending way too much time perusing "Retiring Racehorses – Pacific NW" on FaceBook, dreaming of meeting some this winter when there are meets at Portland Meadows. (I'm not driving up to Emerald Downs, no matter how tempted I am!)

That's the tall and the short of it for now.

3 comments:

Theresa said...

My gosh wee does it all come from? I mean mustangs wouldn't reproduce long with that long list of genetic predispositions. Sigh, I'm sorry Michelle. I still remember all the hope and excitement you had for him. I wish it had panned out. Handsome tails though!

A :-) said...

Oh Man. I'm so sorry to hear that Lance's health is even more compromised :-(

Michelle said...

Theresa, maybe taking an animal adapted to harsh – or at least far different - conditions and giving them "the good life" causes problems; after all, "lifestyle diseases" are the biggest issues for humans.

Thanks for commiserating, A.