ATV

Vet had to reschedule for Friday (which is fine; I would rather he examine a horse who has not been off work for a couple of days) so instead on Wednesday I threw on Tuck's bridle and we headed up the mountain to test my crackpot theory.

Horse did indeed travel significantly better and straighter on the steep bits bareback than he does with a saddle.  (Damnit.)

That aside, it was a wuuunderful ride.  Very relaxing and fun.  On the one hand, I am intermittently wrestling with my goal-oriented competitive soul.  On the other, there was not one thing in the world that I'd rather have been doing than getting run away with trotting through the woods on a perfect-weather afternoon.

(Not actually getting run away with, but Tuck is fit enough to be annoying and I am currently unfit enough to be annoyed -- so we did some work on prepping for transitions and maintaining a better connection through 'em so as to land in a trot that I had a prayer of riding adequately.  Power trot is fine!  Leg salad, not so much.  And I am getting back on the 100 pushups/200 situps horse pronto, and will be working up a post-Biostats schedule to figure out where "more hiking" can fit into my life.)

Yesterday we hooked up with a barnmate for a jump school in the field.  (We have a really nice bank complex, couple of ditches and solid fences, and the standards/poles have begun to make their way out for the summer.)

Some snotty little chestnut was feeling his (very tiny amount of low-octane) grain and the twenty-degree temperature drop yesterday.  He was saucy like whoa.  Except actually more like no whoa, interspersed with hopping up and down when I clarified: Yes, actually damnit whoa.

So I camped out on a circle on the slope and worked him in until he remembered that he is a schooled and civilized horse, capable of opening stride to a softened rein when invited and also of coming smartly back when asked.  Then we went ahead and jumped a few things.  And: actually pretty good!

He was keen (which I like) and bold (which I like) and making some bids which I had to remind myself not to enable -- nothing unsafe or even in itself inappropriate, but the sort of thing that tends to snowball if we string together a couple like that -- but responding really well to the sequence of roll along -> rebalance away from the fence -> stay the same to the base, and then landing fairly straight and galloping away attentive on a soft feel.

We did not much -- maybe six fences all told? -- and then hacked to cool out.  I would have liked him making a smoother transition between "chilling and waiting" and "on his game," but he is usually good about knowing when to flip that switch, so I am willing to chalk this one up to weather-change sillies.  Mostly I am really pleased with how well he answered when given a job.

Vet this afternoon for real -- although of course he's felt great this week, so possibly I should just keep having the appointment postponed -- and we'll see where to go from there.