Last night I decided to ride Max and do some light training. For the most part, Max was pretty good and he didn't give me a lot of attitude when directed to go into a left lead canter. I focused mostly on riding down the track doing trot/walk/canter transitions along with the occassional turning on the forehand exercises.
Max seemed to prefer working on the track as opposed to the arena and it was there that he gave some attitude. Interestingly enough, he attempted to keep going into the left lead canter even though I wanted to walk or trot. Perhaps I'm working him too hard on this point so I'm going to back off a bit and focus more on transitions and trotting.
I also had a chance to speak to the farrier about Max's shoeing. Previously, the farrier had used corrective shoes with "wings" that support the feet and shield them from rocks. It seems that all the riding in the wash with all the stones was beginning to bend them down, thereby putting pressure on the bottoms of the hooves so the farrier didn't put that type of shoe on this time.
In any event, unlike before, lately Max has been full of energy and he's the direct opposite of what he used to be in that he wants to go fast into the canter where before I had to urge him. Of course things could change again...
Also, while I can't detect any injury, I think that it might be a good idea to put Max on his joint supplement again. I took him off because I didn't think it was doing any good but with his lately refusing to his the left lead canter without a major fight might have to do with joint stiffness.
Always something.... :-)
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