Still Moving Forward

We are still moving forward … in more ways than one.

1. Under Saddle Training

Ace  has grown very sensitive to my legs and takes very little pressure to respond appropriately. We are now doing walk, trot, canter regularly and have even gotten some transitions straight to canter from a walk. He is very energetic and forward at the trot especially. He’s starting to pick up his energy and pace at the walk too.

I also discovered the other day that Ace will turn with just leg cues. I still have a lot of trouble with bending him properly in the arena. He goes through the corners with his head to the inside and throwing his shoulders to the outside. I’ve been working hard to correct this by using my legs to adjust the position of his shoulders and hindquarters and the reins to keep his head straight. Last week I popped on bareback for a little bit, and discovered that he would turn beautifully around my legs. With my inside leg at the girth and outside leg back (still have to exaggerate the cues) and the reins sitting on his neck, we walked three perfectly round circles.

We’ve worked out in one of the pastures several times since it hasn’t rained much and the ground has hardened. It’s nice for my big boy to not be constantly turning in the smallish arena. There’s also a slight slope on the long side, so we’re working up and a down a hill. Ace likes working out there much better and we have been able to do some good canter work, and have even started establishing some flexion. We’ve gotten used to traffic buzzing by on the road, the neighbor dog running up to the fence line and barking her head off, and birds flying out of bushes. The first time I asked for canter in the pasture, Ace gave me a little buck. He must have thought it was fun working out there, because he came to a dead halt outside the arena and refused to go back in when we were finished.

2. The Health Department

Finally having green grass to eat has done wonders for Ace’s weight. He’s a big boy and it’s been tough getting his ribs covered and his butt to fill out. After a month of grass, he’s sleek, shiny, and not showing any more ribs. I can always tell when he’s gaining weight because he gets thicker through his withers and across his back. It’s a beautiful sight!

He’s still looking a little ridiculous as he finishes shedding out. I’ve learned that horses must have a thick, short undercoat during the winter, like ducks have down. I was never really aware of this before. But Ace made it really obvious, because his “down” is nearly black. When he started shedding out his light bay winter coat, he was very dark underneath. He was light with all these dark patches. I thought it was just his summer coat.

Then he started getting light patches under the dark, because he was shedding the dark hairs too.

So, his summer coat is a lighter, redder bay than I originally thought. And he still has a few goofy looking dark patches that need to shed out.

I got him at the tail end of summer, so the dark hair I thought was his summer coat was apparently his winter liner starting to grow in.

Who knew.

Oh, and all of those old cuts have healed up pretty nicely. He has a nice jagged scar under his chin. I tell him it makes him look like a pirate.

On one backwards note, my tack started to rub the top of his gigantic withers yesterday. We’ve never had a problem before, but yesterday I found a spot the size of the dime where the hair had rubbed off. That’s going to be fun to deal with, considering he’s very high-withered even compared to high-withered horses. My saddle does sit several inches above his withers, and I’m using a wither relief pad with a regular square pad underneath. I think part of the problem was that the saddle slid back some as we rode. Any suggestions you might have will be very welcome.

3. House Stuff

We have a contract on a house we love, and are just waiting for the sellers’ signatures. Securing our mortgage and scheduling inspections is next. I’ve got some pictures of the house posted on Flickr.

And because I get this question a lot, no, we are not looking for a house with room for Ace. First, I dont’ want to have my horse at my house. I like to board. I like the freedom it offers, I like that Ace has buddies, and I like that I have buddies. A big part of the fun of being around horses is being around other horse people. Second, a farmette isn’t in the house budget this time around. Third, Tracie might just kill me if I took Ace away. She’s kind of attached to us.