Max still hasn't had his feet trimmed. The farrier got sent away last week because of the surprise! Demo crew showing up to knock down buildings at the farm. Obviously big bulldozers crashing into structures and trees don't make for ideal circumstances to have the farrier trimming and shoeing horses. Thankfully he will be out this week. I'm happy to report, though, that his feet have REALLY toughened up, ALL on their own. I haven't applied any oils, compounds, nothing nada zip zilch to his feet. It's not to say I didn't want to, but I had been waiting for my farrier to see his feet and make suggestions or recommendations on what might be a good idea for his particular situation. His soles are tough, and he doesn't misstep or take ouchy steps any longer! Max won't get another tough work out until he is trimmed, however, because his feet are going through a chipping stage now. The new growth is immaculate and looks just stunning, but the point of his hoof where his nail holes were at is now the very end of his toe, so the last of the weakened hoof is at it's end. I am confident that after this trim, he will have no evidence of shoes, and should hopefully continue to progress in that department.
So Sunday morning comes very early, and we're out there at 7:30 in the morning, to beat the heat. Max got tacked up in his stall because the cross ties are out of commission until the rest of the old barn debris are removed. He was a good boy and we mounted down at the barn and walked up to the arena, three horses including us. One first timer to the arena (and first timer to anything we did that day) and Max's buddy Prince.
I have been working him consistently over poles, learning where to place his feet and making appropriate decisions about when to lengthen and shorten to make the distances work. He is really smart and I love to see his ears making lots of movements while we go over the poles, thinking for himself. We walked and trotted over some cross rails that couldn't be more than 12" high. I think we will introduce some basic cross rails to jump soon. We had some great trot work and finally I decided to take the plunge. I rocked my hips and gave Max some kisses and he moved right into the canter. I looked like a bird learning to fly on his back, flapping around and finally settling into a half seat. I guess I just didn't prepare myself and have a plan for how I wanted to approach the first canter with him. I opted for 'off the back' this time around. He did really well and we made one full lap around the arena with a pretty connected canter. Heavy on the forehand, but still pretty awesome.
My (arguably) worst bad habit is tipping forward at the canter and taking a half seat, THANK YOU overzealous hunter/eq barns of my past. I really like to get off my horses' backs when they are first learning to carry a rider and accept that weight, and a lot of what I did when I was in my junior campaign was work greenies to get extra ride time. Always off their backs during our canter work, nice half seat, didn't really start thinking about sitting the canter until I got on some squirrelly horses who needed the weight to say "WOAH DAMNIT". That doesn't mean it was pretty. Hunch backed, eyes down, I was a mess. I progressed some when I went to ride with one of my trainers who started specializing in eventing and had a great dressage base. If the horse had a united collected canter, the sit was unbelievably easy. I struggle every single ride with sitting the canter and looking like a halfway decent human being while doing it. On Bella, I rarely struggled to sit. I will give it another go on Max, hopefully with more sitting, to get a better judgement on how tough his canter is going to be to sit. I love those short backs, but sometimes it makes that tipping oh so harder to overcome! It can be done, though, and HAS been done, so I have confidence that once I get into more of a groove with Max, my equitation will catch back up. Otherwise, well, there's always the jumper ring (HA! PSYCH! You need your sitting WOAH DAMN IT more in that ring that any other!) Anyhow, Max doesn't really require an E Brake at this point (probably never will, but never say never...) so I am optimistic that this is something I can comfortable and safely work on while riding him. You guys have to remember, I've had no real continuous-continuing education (huh?) in riding for roughly the last 6 years. That's the last time I had a consistent at least once a week lesson with a competent trainer. Of course, throughout the course of owning pony, I had several lessons, but more to the tune of once or twice a month, sometimes no lesson for a month or more at a time...I cannot WAIT to start lessoning with Max. With Bella, it was all about making her as perfect as I could, having lots of fun with her along the way. I totally threw myself on the back burner, disregarded any issues I was struggling with as a rider (we all have them, and if you don't think you do, you clearly have no business being in this sport) and focused any and all lessons we did have on HER and HER training. Not me. Now that I have what I presume to be my 'forever' horse, it's time to start learning as a team, and fixing issues as they come up, for BOTH of us, not just him.
Anyhow, The new routine is going to be something along the lines of 5 days on, 2 days off work. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday Sunday. Probably won't stick, because with the looming afternoon storms of Florida's gulf coast throughout the entire summer, it's bound to make me move days/lose days altogether. I can't wait to get out there and ride Baby Max. I look forward to every day I get to hop on such an amazing creature!
Baby Max doesn't do nearly as well with candid photography as Bella did. However, he's still handsome as can be. We might just need to hire a professional to photograph him in all his glory, because he's too interested in being ALL UP in my business when I have a camera in front of me.
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