Blazin' Trails

I had a nice ride up the hill on Blaze on Wednesday. I hauled horses to my dad's and he rode with me when I took Blaze up. We walked, trotted and galloped out up the logging roads. It was Blaze's first time loping under saddle and he didn't bobble at all, just a little squeeze at a trot and off we went into a nice little smooth lope. I had Blaze lead sometimes and follow other times in all gaits and he had a good time. He walked out nice and seemed very happy to be up there. We took the "williwaw" trail, going up a bank, through brush, over logs, etc. Blaze has grown up in varied terrain so that didn't phase him. It made me feel good that he was so relaxed yet perky about everything. Our ice is pretty much gone so I should be able to put him to work a bit more seriously now!

I also took Cayenne and Smarty up on the hill. I climbed the ridge line on both and did lots of galloping. I had planned to go easy on Smarty since he's not in any sort of shape, other than round, but he had other ideas. I relented and let him charge up the hills hell-bent-for-leather until we reached the top. He was ready to keep going but I pulled him up made him walk a while. He has never poured on the speed for that long. He must be feeling really good after seeing the equine dentist last week! He was jiggy, which has never happened before either, so once I got him to walk calmly, I cued him into a long trot. We trotted for another ways and then picked up a lope again. I let him have his head a bit and he was tearing along the curvy logging road like a madman! I slowed him up before the sharper corners in case there were deer or elk in the road but otherwise, I let him run. After a few minutes, I slowed him up again and made him walk the half hour or so back to the trailer. He was still full of energy, although flat footed, and seemed extremely happy with himself and the fact that he'd gotten to stretch out. If he had longer legs, I might be able to say he was fast but his little legs were just going a million miles an hour!

The renewed happiness of my horses I had dental work done on makes me feel it was well worth it. I'm already seeing better lateral work and comfort. Having Smarty so free and "full of it" is different but good. Other than the habit of keeping his nose tipped slightly to the right this winter, I didn't realize that seemingly minor mouth issues were hindering my riding and training so much. Even 2% better is a huge difference in the long run. None of them had major issues except Smarty had a "wave" probably from a cap that stayed on too long, which resulted in a high tooth on the bottom left side of his molars. With his stud jowls pushing in, the edge on the high tooth was wearing on the inside of his cheek, resulting in the head tipping I started getting. I guess I'll be paying the equine dentist to work on all of my horses annually from here on out!