Hacking and Sprinting

Yes!! Another beautiful day to go for a ride!!

Sam picked me up after I was done work at 2 so that Keith could have the car to make it down to my parents place for supper tonight. Once Sam picked me up, we headed over to my parents place and Sam dropped me off at the pasture so that I could grab Dollar. Seeing as I had left my tack there yesterday, I went into the pasture and found him once again (he likes to hide in the bush) and brought him out. Mars didn't try following us this time, so that was a relief. I tacked him up quickly and headed on our way home.

I was thinking of deworming Dollar before our ride, but decided to wait until afterwards. I went inside to grab a granola bar for Dollar and look for Sam. She was taking a nap in bed and said that she had a headache. Fine then, I went back outside and finished getting Dollar ready. Just as I was about to leave on my hack, Sam walked out of the house and said that she'd come on a ride with me.OK then. She got Pretty saddled up and we went on our 4-mile jog.

Now, I don't mind riding with Sam. It's when she makes it into a training session or she just wants to race that annoys me. I'm out here to do some hacks with Dollar for his COPD and to keep him moving. Not get a training session in or to race.

So we headed out on our hack. Started out at a brisk walk and then progressed into a jog. He was really trying to stretch out more in his trot, so we're slowly making progress!! Kept up the walk/trot alternations for almost 2 miles. Then I asked Dollar to canter. He moved up really nicely into his canter and just kept like that. Pretty on the other hand just wanted to race right aways. Sheesh. Dollar just kept at his canter (he knows not to push my buttons) while Sam fought with Pretty.

Then I thought "what better way to work a sprint than to have him go up against Pretty?" Seeing as Sam was egging Dollar on (and he was still on loose reins) I asked him to sprint. He immediately responded and blew past Pretty for a couple strides. Then Pretty blew past him and we were left in the dust. I was kind of holding him back a bit in the sprint because he was in a snaffle and I'm not sure how much control I've got when he's running. Let him sprint for a little bit (maybe 1/4 mile? Not sure) And then got him back down to a jog and then walk. He listened really well to me asking him to slow down. It also helps that he knows that as soon as I say "OK, that's enough" that that's his clue to start slowing down. Got him down to a walk and then we trotted up to Sam. She was fighting like hell with Pretty right from the get go.  So glad Dollar doesn't do that to me.

Sam finally got Pretty down to a walk and then asked her to stop at the stop sign. Do you think Pretty would do that? Nope. Sam fought with her tooth and nail again. While me and Dollar just kept walking down the road. Pretty hasn't learnt respect yet for anybody, so all of this crap is making it really hard for her to respect Sam at all.

While we were walking down the road, I noticed a freshly mowed field off to my side and decided to do some more sprint work in there with Dollar. And this is where Sam thought it would be a great idea to work Reining circles with Pretty. Yeah, bad idea. Pretty had sliders on and your going to work her in the grass?? Not thinking there... And because she's been letting Pretty go full out lately, well that's all she wants to do when she gets out of the pen. She doesn't want to go slow and listen. She just wants to give 'er. Sigh.

I got Dollar just walking and trotting around in there for a bit so that he could get used to the footing. Then I asked him to do some sprints for me. And he did them wonderfully!1 He didn't go full out (he knows better and his COPD can't handle that) but he did kick it up a couple gears and then listened beautifully when I asked him to slow down. Did that a couple times and then did some more walking and trotting around. After a while I just got tired of watching Sam fight with Pretty so much that we jumped across the ditch and made our way home.

Got home, took his bridle off and let him cool down a bit before I gave him his dewormer. I've been a bit behind on that and have noticed the bot eggs on his legs. So I gave him the dewormer (lovely. Yummy!!) and let him taste that for a little bit. Then I bridled him back up and brought him back out to pasture. When we got to the corner for us to turn, Sam was just coming home with Pretty just dripping in sweat. Well that's what happens when you get her worked up like that. I asked her how she was and she just mumbled an answer. Whatever.

Got Dollar back to pasture and got passed by Mom in the truck as she was on her way there too. Turns out that Mom had picked up a whole bunch of little corn for the horses as it was pretty cheap. So I untacked Dollar and put him back into the pasture so that he could have some corn. Don't worry, he was all cooled down and not sweating at all. Actually I don't think he even broke a sweat. Mom had my nephew helping her feed the corn to the horses (which he was being really cute at) and once they were done, I grabbed my nephew and took him home on the 4-wheeler with me.

All in all, a pretty good day.