Hack day today!! Lately when I've been riding Dollar, I've been staying in the arena to work on some dressage. In theory it works, but not for him. After spending a couple days in there, I decided we were long overdue for a hack day. Once he's spent too long in an arena, he gets very slow and lazy and just plain down. So when I got out to pasture today, I brought my tack along with me, caught him (although he was more interested in eating) and tack him up quickly.
Before our hack, he looks like he's not sure what we're doing
Went out on the road and he changed from a slow and lazy 18-yo to a feisty 2-yo. I had my spurs on just for encouragement, but didn't really need them. Set out at a brisk walk down the road and I'm proud to say that there were no feet issues!! They're toughening up!! Of course, Dollar being Dollar likes to walk on the side of the road where all the rocks are. And no issues at all!!
We started out at a brisk walk and then progressed into a jog/trot. He was moving quite nicely, so I just let him have loose reins while we were hacking. He started out at a jog, but then quickly proceeded to take advantage of this and stretch his legs out into a trot. Why doesn't he do this in the arena?? Because it's Dollar and he's a gentleman.
Surveying his surroundings
We headed down the road just going along. Dollar was looking all over the place since he was on a loose rein. When I moved him into a trot, he actually started to stretch out a little and gave me a little bit on an extended trot! We alternated between the walk and trot just to get him working a bit. Once we hit some pavement (about 1 mile from our place), I moved him onto there to help toughen up his legs. He didn't seem to keen on that at first, but still went trotting on there. He was feeling awesome so I asked him for a canter. He went into his canter (again on a loose rein). I let him canter for ½ mile and brought him down to a walk when we reached the corner.
We walked around the corner and kept walking for a while. OK, walking for a while was in MY mind, not in Dollar's. He decided that we should keep trotting (he figured out that we were going home) so I just let him. As long as he's not running home (no more of that EVER AGAIN!) he can trot home all he wants. While we were going down the 2nd mile, we found some cows!! Yes I took a picture. Lol. Dollar wasn't interested at all, he was focused on his mission.
Cows!!
We continued on our way and when we got to the ½ mile marker, I let him canter the ½ mile to the corner, while doing a little bit of sprinting. He loved that! Trotted around the corner and alternated between walking and trotting home. We were on the 3rd mile and into a head wind (which was extremely cold!) so Dollar walked home as fast as he could. Turned the corner for the last half of the 4th mile and extended trotted back to pasture.
When we got there, he was doing pretty good, not breathing too heavy and still looked like he could keep on going. I untacked him, put my stuff away and pasture. Going for another hack tomorrow!!
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