27/3/16 A roller coaster few weeks!

Rather annoyingly, when he has been going so well, work with Jack had stalled in the last few weeks as he suddenly became very foot sore.  Nothing to worry about, it was expected as it happens about this time every year and tells me it's time to get him some shoes back on as he is barefoot through the Winter.  Unfortunately my farrier had been unable to fit us in at a time I could manage so Jack had a bit of an easy time of it for a couple of weeks while we waited.  We managed the odd little hack, a small amount of schooling and a couple of lunges but I didn't want to push him when his feet were sore.  It did give me the time to do a bit more ground work with him in the arena and we also managed to do a bit of much needed trailer loading practice.  He has always loaded well onto lorries but has never liked the trailer much.  Whilst I would love to be able to buy him a lorry I just don't have the money so I need him to get used to travelling in the trailer!  He did get better at loading for a while but then he had a year of only ever going to the vets in trailer and he became difficult to load again.  We've not had it much need to travel since but when we have he has not wanted to load so I decided now was a good time to tackle the loading issues and spent a few days loading and feeding him in the trailer.  The first day he hesitated for a while before loading the first time but then went straight on each time after that, the next day we had no hesitation at all and he now trots in happily next to me so real progress was made but we need to keep up the practice more frequently so he doesn't revert back.  It's nice to take the pressure off every now and again so Jack doesn't become bored or resent his work so it's actually not been bad to have a more relaxed couple of weeks however we now need to get back on it as we have entered a competition!!

I'm riding my best friends pony in a combined training competition in a few weeks so I decided as I'm going I might as well take Jack along and do a class on him too so we've got a few weeks to prepare for that, its only a prelim test and 70cm show jumping and he is comfy jumping around 1m at home (well he was before his feet became sore) so this shouldn't be an issue for him.

With a competition now to aim at work to get ready has begun, not only to get Jack performing at his best but also looking presentable, he's been rather roughed off this winter!  He needs a good bath, mane pulled, legs trimmed and mane and tail tidied up so he looks half decent at least!  He hates his mane being pulled and I have to twitch him to get it done so it takes a few days.  I'm looking forward to having a less scruffy pony at the end of it!

I tried not to worry when Jack was foot sore but as anyone who has had a horse with Kissing spines knows owner paranoia is a major issue when ever our horse has a problem no matter how small.  Jack gets foot sore every spring, it's not unusual but I started to convince myself there might be other causes, that he had lost his sparkle and maybe I should be calling the vet instead of the farrier.  I really didnt need to worry though, since having his shoes back on this week he's got a spring back in his step and he is feeling fab!  I schooled him today and I put some poles out as this always seems to help get him moving more forward and engaging his hind end.  I set out 3poles 1 canter stride apart on one side of the menage and then 2 poles an unknown distance apart on the opposite side.  Having warmed up in walk and trot and over the poles I then cantered him over them and counted the number of strides between the 2 poles and we got 8 on each rein.  This then gave me something to work on as I adjusted his stride to fit in first less strides, we managed 7 on each rein and even managed a 6 on the right rein!  I think the reason we didn't manage 6 strides on a left is because I had positioned the first pole too close to the corner off the left rein so we couldn't really get going before the pole like we could to the right.  We then did a bit more work to collect him and got 9 and 10 strides in on each rein.  This is a huge improvement as adjusting his stride has always been a struggle and resulted in Jack rushing onto his forehand and loosing the quality of the pace.  I'm so pleased with him!
After that I stretched him in canter and he was so loose and did a lovely stretch right over his back and much softer laterally in his neck too.
The improvements this horse is making are really exciting me I just hope I can show him off to his best in a couple of weeks, he's more than ready for it I just need to practice riding a test as it's been over 2 years since I last did one!

In the mean time finally here are the images from a professional photo shoot we had done last Autumn after winning a facebook competition: