Where did November go?

Holden some time in November

Good lord, it's been a long time since I updated!

Holden's been good - he had a little accident right after our last lesson in October -- he managed to put all four legs between a gate and the result was some spectacular gashes and bruises.. So, he got to enjoy some serious time off. He was ridden sparsely in November, what between the mushy grass soup that is our riding ring and the miserable weather following.. not to mention it took a while for his cut (thanks gate!) on his pastern to seal completely.

The one thing I can really appreciate with him though is that he's the same horse, whether he's had four days off or four weeks.. the first five minutes he can be a little wiggly as he becomes accustomed to your leg, but it's nice to not have to worry about him being an idiot just because he hasn't been worked consistently. 

He got new shoes the first week of December - finally put pads on him after x-rays confirmed what I was afraid of.. perilously shallow soles! So that didn't really jive with the whole "work hard and no-stirrup-November" goal that we had going on.. I felt it was unfair to work him with such thin feetsies and he sure wasn't complaining about the lack of serious mileage in November!

Once he got his fancy sneakers (complete with boriums up front) we went for a spin and I can tell he must have been wanting a shoeing upgrade for a while - he was much better over the gravel and uneven terrain that is our spiky driveway. We didn't do much, few trot laps in both directions and called it quits. I figure what with having such an inconsistent month, we could pick up the real work the next day.

And that was a few days ago -- we went for a whirl today and he was saucy, very saucy. Warm-up was okay, he was much better once I did some loopy serpentines and figure eights.. think he just forgot what a real leg aid felt like. Katie came out to snap some pictures (we have an employee photo contest at work) but sadly it was already dusk and my camera didn't agree much with the lighting. You'll have to forgive the quality, as I had to edit the pictures in PS3 because they were so dark. In any event we got enough pictures to figure out what I need to work on -- I even included a less than flattering one for posterity ;)

You know.. for posterity..

We even hopped over the barrels at the end of the ride.. Yup, just as I suspected -- EXACTLY where we left off! Such a good egg.

Maybe next time I rope my sister into snapping some pictures, we can go with a holiday theme..