....and wow! - what a difference! Well, I don't know yet about Sam, but Oliver was a completely different horse. Percy Page came out to do the farm's horses, including my boys, and I really liked that he did them without drugging them. There were a couple of painful spots for the boys (sharp edges) but both of them were very good about the whole thing, albeit a tad surprised. Percy spent quite a bit of time explaining to me about what he was doing and why, and I found out why vets tend to miss certain areas.
I rode Oliver afterwards, and he was wonderful. I started off by asking him to stretch into the contact at the walk, which was hesitant to do, but he did eventually give me a decent stretch. At the trot, though, is where I felt the most difference. He would start to stretch, and then back off, and then go a little bit further, like he was testing out the feel, and in no time at all I got great stretching at the trot, with actual weight in my hands - it felt like he was stepping into the bridle and gently tugging at the bit, which has never really done before. I asked for the canter, and on both leads he stepped into it without inverting, and even gave me a decent stretch in the canter! Needless to say, I was thrilled. I think this whole time the bit has been hurting him, which is why he was reluctant to truly trust it. I also rode him in the Nathe loose ring, but I think the difference was really due to the float.
Sam was also very good today - perfect, in fact. I rode him before the float, so I don't know if the float would make any difference, but his canter work was better than usual. I really made sure to get the transition promptly, pushing him into the outside rein and holding it very steady, and he really rounded through into the canter and I even felt him round his back in the canter itself, which is a breakthrough as he always tends to hold his back in the canter. Alltogether a good day.
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