Early today, the shoer came by and worked on Max so I decided that we would get in the saddle time we missed last night ;-).
Max was a bit stiff on the front legs at the start and I was beginning to wonder if he wasn't' suffering a flare-up of arthritis but as we warmed up (or maybe it was just the new shoes?), his gait improved. We focused on canter/walk transitions and some lateral work to include leg yields and shoulder-ins. On the canter/walk transitions, I was able to hit the right level and Max picked up pretty quickly on what I was trying to do and we got in some pretty good transitions. I find that in the warm-up process for Max that it's best to do a lot of walking, some short trotting, go into the canter and then return to the trot- his trotting tends to improve after cantering for awhile.
Because he started out stiff, I didn't do any one gait for a long time and I also did some lateral work to give him some flexibility- mostly side passes and some leg yields, then moving on to shoulder-ins. I find that Max does the best shoulder-ins at the sitting trot and I even tried a few at the posting trot.
After about 45 minutes, I walked Max around to cool down and to give him a break. Finally, as part of his post-work bucket, I gave him a dose of Bute. With weather threatening to rain this weekend and possibly snow, I'll have to keep an eye on Max because of the arthritis situation- I don't need a repeat of what happened in December.
Well see how the weather goes in the next few days... :-)
Max was a bit stiff on the front legs at the start and I was beginning to wonder if he wasn't' suffering a flare-up of arthritis but as we warmed up (or maybe it was just the new shoes?), his gait improved. We focused on canter/walk transitions and some lateral work to include leg yields and shoulder-ins. On the canter/walk transitions, I was able to hit the right level and Max picked up pretty quickly on what I was trying to do and we got in some pretty good transitions. I find that in the warm-up process for Max that it's best to do a lot of walking, some short trotting, go into the canter and then return to the trot- his trotting tends to improve after cantering for awhile.
Because he started out stiff, I didn't do any one gait for a long time and I also did some lateral work to give him some flexibility- mostly side passes and some leg yields, then moving on to shoulder-ins. I find that Max does the best shoulder-ins at the sitting trot and I even tried a few at the posting trot.
After about 45 minutes, I walked Max around to cool down and to give him a break. Finally, as part of his post-work bucket, I gave him a dose of Bute. With weather threatening to rain this weekend and possibly snow, I'll have to keep an eye on Max because of the arthritis situation- I don't need a repeat of what happened in December.
Well see how the weather goes in the next few days... :-)
2 comments:
a few of my guys needs a day or 2 off to adjust to their new shoes, so may not be anything to worry about :-) but i blame the weather for everything too - i know i'm feeling stiff and miserable with the changes here! i have to imagine the horses feel it too...
With the cold weather we've been experiencing lately, it's been really hard on Max. Also, the teperatures were dipping down into the 30s and it even wound up snowing briefly this past weekend.
Sounds kind of silly compared to your part of the country, I realize. :-)
Actually, he'd do fine in cold except for the arthritis...I keep an eye on him and try to keep him moving even if I can't ride him- if I turn him out, he'll usually walk around the arena on his own (too many patches of tasty grass to nibble on along the outside:-)
Ultimately, the best thing for my guy is a lot of bright sunlight. :-)
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