Holy Moly!

Mr. Stallion.

Things change fast round here! So, we're taking three Rocky Mountain horses to the Salon du Cheval in Quebec which is an exhibition and competition, although we're just exhibiting. Boss wants to take three different colours, which is fine, except the grulla isn't yet certified and can't really be ridden as her gait is frankly, terribly hard for her to perform. So then there's a chocolate one, she wants to take Ella, who will be ridden western and show trot and gait, except her canter is terrible at the moment, and I am now taking the stallion, little black beauty, who has a canter but I will need to work on it a lot over the next two months. I will also do a couple of small jumps with him. He's got a great 'hup!' on the trail, and if he could just sort his legs out, we'll be able to do it from a canter. He can do poles and tiny little half a foot things but he really does need more balance. They can't jump from a gait as the footfalls are all wrong, and he for sure cannot trot, so it'll be a long road, but I miss jumping, so I'm happy.

This last week has been spring break for the small child so I've not had to do any school runs and consequently have done many trails, amidst the melting snow and ice. Stallion is my mount of choice as Tatoum is mainly schooling and a trail a week, and Mae is still in rehab...he's barely 14hh, but he's all in proportion and he's game as anything. He gets a little spooked by the deep footing at one of the stream-that-never-froze crossings, but he sniffs it out and has a little face splash before thrusting over. We encountered a - in my eyes - much scarier, steeper down, across and up again steep ditch with a big branch across, but there was no running water and after he'd had a quick look, he scrambled down and up most calmly. He then stood whilst I gave myself a lower back cramp, breaking off a large pine branch so the others could follow without braining themselves. He also gamely 'swims' through deep snow. Last week, we accidentally rode into a drift that was up to my stirrups and past his belly. He considered his options, I grabbed my huge pommel and gave him all the rein so he could lurch out. Didn't bother him a bit.



Mae had more lameness the other week so she had another week of reduced turn out and nights in a stall. I then started doing free work with her, mainly at the walk but asking her to trot a bit and she got through a bit of stiffness. She doesn't gait unless under saddle so it's hard to see a problem there. As I've said before, she's ace, so after one session of trotting in big circles, I hopped on her back with just a halter and rope to cool her down. She was incredible. She neck reins, she halts at whoa, she does circles, serpentines, backs up. I even rode her with just a neck rope, which she pretty much 'got' too, although it was a little harder for me to get my messages across. Not her fault! I am very keen to explore this side of her, once she's ready to gait and canter under saddle again. When everything unfreezes, I can also start my walks up and down the lane with her, a nice firm surface is better for their gait-ness.