Saddle-free Fun!

Sunday M lead Barokko in the woods for about an hour, incl lots of hop-skippity-jumping and tons of compliments from people out on walks ;)

Monday, yesterday, longe work.

Today I hopped on for a little saddle-free dressage. Although his gaits are still affected, he was clearly more comfortable without the saddle than he had been with it. He was very light and steady in the hand, which he otherwise hasn't been recently. He was also more straight through his body.

A bonus of riding without the saddle is that I could feel it immediately if he began to tense up int he back, so I could avoid doing exercizes that bothered him. Turn on the haunches was fine one way, but not the other. Canter transitions were OK to the right, but no can do to the left.

After a 30 min ride I let him loose in the arena, thinking I had it to myself. But 5 mins later S comes in with a student. I go to catch Barokko, but no way he was coming with me :D Took me several minutes to catch him, and all the while the lesson horse just stood calmly looking at him, you could almost sense her shaking her head at the silly pony ;)

The arena was free a little later, so let him out again, and set up a little jump for him to pop over, which he did a few times.

I've arranged with a new, well-recommended farrier to shoe him this week. His current shoes are actually fine, I wouldn't normally get him reshod for another two and a half weeks, but the roads are icey in the mornings now, so I need studs. Barokko has a tendency to slip easily unless he has very new shoes (or studs), even on reg pavement, so when it's icey I barely dare to even take him out of the stable on flat shoes!

The farrier was super nice to talk to, and seemed very confident, professional, and knowledgeable. He took a quick look at Barokko today while I was there, and had a very calm manner with him, so I feel good about letting him work on him. It'll be really interesting to see what his shoeing looks like.

Also, I've booked the saddlefitter for next Wed, so the inflamation can settle before she comes out to see him. It'd be great if we could make the Albion work for him, I like that saddle a lot, but we'll see.