He's Closer to Four than Three AHHHHHH!!!

We are at a bit of a stand still training wise. I had him going really well undersaddle. He could steer decent, stop, go, and back. Then his old lady momma hurt her back and I was out of commission. I came out to longe him and love on him but riding was out of the question. I missed a bunch of work and spent the better part of one week lying on my side attached to a heating pad. Then I was ready to ride but we had a crazy windy week. Trees were falling over and there was thunder and lighting. I didn't want to hop right on my wild 3yo after a month off with a hurricane going on. 

Finally last week I was able to hop on and he was naughty. I think he was great for a 3yo with such limited riding but I was sweating. We had our first ride with another horse in the arena for the full ride. That blew his mind. When he gets focused on something he finds the requests of his rider quite annoying. He would trot trot trot happily along then see something interesting and it was suck back, kick out, mini buck, hop, hop, annnnnnd go again. 

I had someone mention that they thought the root problem was him being behind the leg. I suppose I could have been more assertive about him not getting behind the leg. However, he has such a poor attention span that I am not sure that would have helped. When he is paying attention to me he moves right out then BAM something sparkly catches his eye and he wants to check it out. Is that really behind the leg or is it just my 3yo dofus has the attention span of a gnat? When he feeling particularly focused I can get a good 20 minutes of forward trotting (with rests of course) and he is downright snappy off the leg. 

It is so hard starting a baby. I wouldn't trade it but sometimes I second guess myself. Am I pushing him too hard? Am I not pushing him enough? Where should he be at 3? I have only ridden him in a bit once but he is teething so he hasn't wanted a bit in his mouth. We aren't cantering yet but I still don't feel like I have enough control to canter him in a big arena with lots of room to gain speed and bucks. And I know if I sent him off for training he would be further along, but do I really want him further along?  know that many 31/2 yos are doing more but I don't want to ruin his growing body. His spine won't finish growing til six, he just grew a half inch in two months, has a mouth full of baby caps, and has the chest of a starved mongolian pony from the front. Do I really have anything to gain but pushing him at this moment? I don't want him to have an injury at four or five and find myself wondering if it is because I pushed him too far at three. For some reason once he turns more I will be more confident about pushing him. 

I HAAATE putting a bit in my mouth right now mom.

Le'ts play. 

Go get it Dickie!!

He kills the ball!!!

He's ready for mom to kick it again.

That baby chest I was talking about. 

Bre Update (Bad blogger here)

Bre is doing FANTASTIC!! She was a royal shit two days after the injections. I tried to hand graze her and she was dragging me around on the wet pavement like I was water skiing. The first day she had turnout she ran around the arena like a mad woman bucking and leaping. The woman who has been leasing Bre said she is looking 100% sound and I have seen her trotting around sound. She seems really happy. She is my old horse again. Pushy, sassy, and runs when a sane horse would walk.

I am sad to admit that I haven't actually been on her. Life has been so busy. I have Dickie and I have been helping work horses where Dickie lives. Dickie now lives 20+ from her and it is already a drive for me to get to the horses. She is well taken care of though. She loves her caretakers and they love her. In fact I think she's sees me as a bit of a buzz kill. She was trying to drag me around like some newly captured BLM horse. I said "BRE!!!! Do you know who I am" she looked me right in the eye and thought about minding for a second then continued being a nut job.

I am thinking my lovely retired mare needs to have some basic lessons on ground manners. My friend has been leasing her and spoils her rotten. It might be a good opportunity for her to learn how to handle naughty ponies. Romeo and Bre have both decided that they are feral ponies who can't be told what to do. Maybe I should tell them that wild ponies don't have warm blankets. They also don't get to come into dry stalls with sand runs at night.

It might seem silly that I dropped so much dough to get joint injection for someone else to ride my horse. For me it is a quality of life issue for one of my best friend. If Bre isn't running like an asshat in the pasture she is miserable. She also loves to go on trail rides and have adventures with her people. She gets bored and pissy when she doesn't have a job. It makes me heart happy to see the red mare causing trouble again.

Bre waking up from the procedure. 

The good part of stall rest was constant food. 

Feet all wrapped up to keep injection sites clean. 

Hay and a nice fluffy stall. Rough life.