May 18, 2011 Doing the two step!

Today was the fifth day I got on Rory.  There was a little wind again, but not as much as on Sunday and Rory was less concerned about going down to the far end of the arena.  He looked a couple of times, once when the sun got far enough over to light the canvas door, and the other time when the canvas bulged in the breeze.  I asked him to canter on the longe a couple of times on the right rein, and he did quite well, managing about two thirds of a circle the second time.

When it came time to mount up I shortened the pre-mounting exercises.  I only leaned over him once before swinging my leg over.  I had decided to use the stirrups today and took the spare leather that tied the irons together under his belly off before starting with the mounting routine.  Rory considered walking off the first time I mounted up, but stayed still.  The first time I picked up the off side stirrups I thought he might take the wiggling around as a go forward aid, but he waited.

Rory was a little slow in his walk again today, but went forward when I asked.  After a few turns and halts I asked him to walk forward more actively.  He was a little uncertain, but then walked with more activity.  I decided to see if he would trot and tried with a little leg and voice.  Twice he almost made it to trot, but wasn't sure I meant it so I asked my friend who was keeping an eye on us to stand in the middle with the longe whip.  With a little encouragement Rory made it to trot.  He got a little quick and I asked him to walk after a few steps.  We ended up stopping in the corner as coming back to a walk took too much concentration for him to manage to turn the corner.  The camera shut off due to low battery power just as he came to a stop in the corner after that first trot so I didn't get the other trots on video.  We walked round the arena and then tried for the trot again as we headed back towards the far end. It took a bit more encouragement to get him to trot again, but he managed it. The next time he made the transition more easily but fell back to walk after only a few steps.  I praised the transition to trot and we tried again.  We trotted four times, and the last one he was much more comfortable making the transition up with very little help from my friend.  I quit after that trot, hopped off, gave him a bunch of carrot chunks and lots of pats.

My friend said she'd be around tomorrow if I wanted to ride Rory again.  I explained that I'd love to, but he's still growing and I don't want to stress his body too much so I'm going to try and ride every third day, but no closer together than every second day for now.  By spreading the rides out, if he's a little sore or strained anywhere his body has time to recover and heal.  Mild stresses with time to recover prompt the body to build strength where it's needed.  Adding stress before the body has time to recover can increase the stress to the point of damage, and the horse can start to move incorrectly in order to protect himself.  Given a few weeks of riding for ten to fifteen minutes twice a week Rory will develop the body strength to handle more work.  We have time.  I don't need to rush things with Rory.