Happy Birthday Ace, Nice Muscles!

I would be totally remiss if I didn’t wish my handsome, sweet pony a very Happy Birthday. He officially turns 10 today! Doesn’t that sound old? It always seems like such a big leap to me when horses go from single digits to double digits.

I don’t do anything big for horsey birthdays, but I will of course stop out to clean out his foot (abscess is clear and healing nicely, by the way) and spoil him with a few extra cookies than normal.

I’ll also give him some birthday hugs and rubs and boost his confidence by telling him how wonderful the muscles in his neck and topline are looking. All boys like when you admire their muscles, right? Ace may never be a bodybuilder in the horse world, but he’s really developed some lovely lean, strong muscles lately.

With blowing an abscess and me being gone at Equine Affaire last weekend and to a wedding in Florida this weekend (rough, I know), we’ve been getting in very little riding time lately.

I rode Ace on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two weeks, and was pleasantly surprised with how good he was. Well, not so much that he was good because he’s always well behaved, but that he was still rounding up and offering to carry himself nicely. That was a big deal for two reasons:

1. He had nearly two weeks off, and he starts to lose his hindend strength if he goes more than 2 days without being ridden.

2. I was trying him in a new bit, a simple Myler loose ring jointed snaffle.

Ace is a little weak in his right stifle and he needs consistent work to maintain his strength. While he certainly wasn’t moving his best and his stifle was clicking from time to time on the turns, he was still offering to use his hind end and round up. I’m sure a lot of this is because his overall strength and muscle memory has been developing. Jeremy Steinberg talked a lot about this in his dressage clinics at Equine Affaire last weekend. He said that horses can actually get in shape cardiovascularly very quickly – within a week or two – but that it can take them 6 months or a year to build up muscle. And we are just hitting the 6 month mark since we moved to Shooting Star and started riding more and focusing on conditioning and carriage.

I think the Myler loose ring is going to be a good bit change as well. While Ace listened to the old French link eggbutt pretty well, he was a little reluctant to come on the bit and would frequently grind his jaw side to side.

I took it easy with the new bit on Tuesday, doing lots of transitions and turning to see how he’d respond. I know Ace needs some time to get used to it, but he was already seeking the contact more and jawing less. Might just work out well!

I’m very much looking forward to this weekend in Florida, but boy am I going to be ready for some time at home with my horse!