The Repurposed Horse

Leo has been doing really well with training so far.  After the first fateful trainer ride, he has been worked twice from the ground.  The first session was on Saturday, and Trainer K focused on flexion - getting him to accept contact and move underneath himself.  By the end, he was able to work quite well at the trot, but the directional inconsistencies that I've felt while riding were becoming very apparent.  Trainer K pointed this out - that tracking right he seemed almost physically incapable of bending and moving his hind end properly.  My first reaction - would he benefit from seeing the chiropractor? Much leaning. Strugglebus for the little dude. On Monday, Trainer K took him outside on the lunge to see how much (if anything) he had retained from Saturday's session.  She was extremely impressed.  Not only did Leo not need to spend time re-learning the exercise, but he actually seemed to show some improvement.  He was moving into the...

We worked on our glamour skills today. After last week's success with Leo, my plan was to ride every day this week.  I was really excited to find out if my last ride was just really good luck or an actual breakthrough.  Unfortunately, Gigi the saddlebred had other plans for me.  I was moving her so that I could clean her stall (I clean stalls 3x a week at my barn), and she ever-so-politely decided to step on my foot with her stupid giant weighted saddlebred shoes (Gigi is the only saddlebred at the barn that actually does saddleseat).  I've been stepped on about a million times, and it hurts for like 5 minutes, tops, and then goes away.  Unfortunately, this time it didn't - it actually got worse, and now my poor pinky toe is swollen and discolored and significantly more painful than expected to walk on.  I'm pretty sure it's broken, but having had broken toes in the past I'm saving myself a medical bill by buddy taping (okay, buddy vet wrapping), icing...