American Pharoah wins the Belmont making him the first triple crown winner in 37 years. That's history. I saw it. In my living room. Home alone with the dogs. Sobbing uncontrollably from the moment I realized he had it. AGH! I will never delete that DVR recording.
With the hustle and bustle of a triple crown winner, it often brings horse owners, and Thoroughbred owners in particular that much closer to their own horses. I am blessed to finally be the owner of an OTTB. I finally get it. All those years riding them, I just thought they were strong minded well trained horses. They are SO much more than that. They aim to please every time you're near them. Looking for the right answer to your questions. Whether it's jumping over a cross rail, or making a funny face that allows you to smile and giggle and give them a pat. They are always aiming to please us. They are worker bees, begging for a job, a purpose.
I had two amazing rides on Max this weekend. The first one was a very very nice flat work session in the front paddock. It's a smaller area, so it makes us both work harder, and also helped to aid me in getting him bending around his turns and being a more flexible horse. We did a little more work with contact. Since having his teeth done, he has been much happier with the bit in his mouth. More chewing, and several instances of softening. Still a long way to go, but we're both getting into a groove and starting to think about traveling in a more correct way.
I sometimes still notice that he takes some very long, stretchy steps, followed by one or two short ones. Me and the vet both agree this is not a lameness or soreness issue, but rather the mechanics of his feet right now. His last appointment with the farrier was an eye opener as far as a good education on what we have vs what we want and how to get it. He has been standing much more under himself since the second trim. This should continue to correct slowly, and he should be able to move more and more underneath himself as the shape and structure of his feet change. I attribute his positive hoof health to lots of keratex and sole freeze as needed. The first few days after his trims he is very sore. I applied sole freeze twice, and he came sound the following day. I've applied it one or two more times as it also acts as a sole hardener. His feet have chipped up a little bit, but overall are looking better.
Day two we did a small jump school. We started out with a long walking warm up in the field next to the farm, where the footing is a bit deeper, which really warms up the muscles well while walking around. Then we popped over to the front jump ring and had a quick flat warm up and a handful of jumps. We didn't school hard, or do anything tricky. We worked on staying straight before during and after our jumps. Max gave me a really nice straight line halt after his second X of the morning. The jumping wasn't anything extravagant, but it was a great learning ride, we stayed straight, and learned that lesson well. All while thinking more about leads coming off the fence (got that right one!) and really setting up for our turns. I can't wait to get some lessons with Max, mostly to work on me so that I can better work on him. I found myself getting stuck when we had a pole in front of the jump, which should have helped him think about a good take off, but instead threw us both off our game. The jumps got easier when I removed the pole and let him figure it out on his own without the marker. We called it quits fairly quickly after a few jumps as by 8am it was in the upper 80's and we were both soaked in sweat (ick!)
Here are some videos from the weekend. Don't be too harsh on us! This is all good progress regardless of the few bobbles and sillies on MY part!
Also!! Max will be starting his new weight gain trial this week!!! Stay tuned for updates on that as well as a more intense log of Max's workouts during the trial!
Me and Maxwell working the trot on the flat on our weak side
Goofy Jump, but a nice halt afterward
Another goofy jump, but we got that right lead and uncomfortably held it for half a lap! Need to work on strength!
Cantering into the X. We clipped it on the backside, but honestly, he made such a nice effort I was happy and we ended with this. It was HOT (see his sweat? FIVE jumps and a wet mess) and we were tired!
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