Training: After a week off..

The farrier finally came by Friday morning! Yay!!

He put new shoes on Max, as well as pads and other stuffs which names I cannot recall right now. Basically something to help with hoof growth, and something else to prevent thrush etc. in the pads.

Annnnddd....

He actually said his feet look great!!  I did a double take at my phone (he texted me). After months of hearing  how bad Max's feet are...finally...some progress!!  I teared up at my desk at work but disguised it with a yawn. Don't want folks to start thinking I've gone soft or something...

This morning I had a lesson. My trainer suggested I  lunge him first since he's had a week off, and really, we don't know him that well yet. He might be demon pony.

BLaargh!!! Me Burns you all!

My main concern when lunging him was to see if he was limpy. That was what I was worried about all week actually..that I had messed his foot up. Thankfully he was sounder than ever. He was ready to go though and super fresh. He went zooming around in a circle throwing in a couple of bucks. After about ten circles of zoom zoom he finally decided to be good and went into a nicely framed trot. In the background I could hear my trainer saying "Good thing we lunged him before you got on!"  I heartily agree!! 0.0

 The lesson went amazing. Max was forward and willing. He seemed genuinely happy to be back at work and tried extra hard. We worked on straightness today. When going left we tend to not have enough bend and going right we have too much. Some adjustments to my diagonals and we got him moving straighter. The goal is to be able to drop the inside reign, while keeping outside reign and inside leg contact, and still have him going in the same bend and direction. Lots and lots of homework to get even minutely close to that. Love it!

I purchased an Ultra Thinline Contour Dressage pad on ebay and tried it on today. I noticed it was comfier for me..but I don't know how Max felt about it. Not so many head tosses during warm-up, so maybe?

Looks like it's going to be warmer tomorrow!! Woohoo!!