MiKael Meets Richard......The Story Begins.........

A while ago I wrote about my first day back working 6 of my Arabian horses after some time off due to injury followed by an illness. This particular post A Day in the Life of an Arabian Horse Breeder - Part 7 was the finish-up of that first day with my Arabian stallion, Scandalous Legacy.

I'm bringing these old posts up again, not because the details of how the horses behaved are the same (Although it was a funny set of events.), but it relates to the way I feel at the end of the day around here . Those same sentiments still apply...........somewhere close to half dead most of the time...........and I'm not even working that many horses.

It's the walking up and down the hill, grooming the horses, tacking and untacking and switching them around in the horse trailer that is doing me in. I've only been riding a couple of the usual 6 Arabian horses but my fanny is dragging.

Sometimes, as I sit and watch Richard long lining horses in the round pen, I am fighting off sleep. Yes, you read that right, Richard. I watch Richard working the horses......my horses........

How we progressed from Richard helping me with Legs to working the horses would have been a great series of posts if I hadn't been so tired I didn't make any notes. Now so much time has passed I can't even remember...................I hate getting old. The simple version, however, would go something like this.........

After I started with Legs and Dandy, the next horse I brought was Storm. At first I was long lining the young stallion myself, then riding him afterwards. One day Richard did the long lining, at my invitation. I was intrigued to see what he was working towards, so from there I gradually turned over the long lining to Richard.

The next horse added to the mix was Vee. With the struggles I was having with the mare learning her balance, I was interested in Richard's perspective on the issue and any ideas he might have about a fix.

First off, the mare had not had this problem when I first started her under saddle before she had the twins. So I had the horse had been checked for lameness. I'd even had the chiropractor take a look at her. There were no physical issues causing the problem and yet she still struggled with her balance......particularly at the canter.

Asking for the canter, what I got was really more of a gallop. The mare just couldn't seem to figure out how to carry weight and go slow enough for a canter. Ask her to canter and she gladly burst into a gallop.

She wasn't being naughty. It really was the best that she could do. One thing is for sure, the mare couldn't try harder to do what is asked of her. That's one of the things that made this problem so frustrating.

It turns out the mare was short striding on her left hind leg. Richard's thoughts were it had been caused by her pregnancy. The abnormal burden of carrying twin foals had caused her to compensate with that stride. Then being on stall rest for six months after their birth had firmly entrenched the behavior.

The arena where we had been working with it's irregular footing wasn't conducive to good balance and so the behavior didn't correct despite all my best efforts. Richard's fix wasn't any different than mine had been. Lots of riding on the rail and pushing the mare forward to get her up underneath herself where she belonged.

That's just the beginning of this adventure. I think this only covers about the first two weeks and I'm pretty sure we're getting about to the two month part on this tale. There's lots more story to tell here.

To be continued....................

Getting Started



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