More progress on achieving balance and adjustability at the trot and canter. Prince has learned to modulate his gaits instead of just going fast all the time. He has a very nice medium trot in which he can push pretty effectively from behind and suspend hocks and knees nicely. He's also doing a better job of stepping through into the  canter instead of just falling on the forehand and spurting away. Now that he has a more comfortable choice at the trot and a more correct canter depart, I'm asking him to transition to canter every time he starts to hyperextend at the trot. He does seem to get the idea, and after a few rounds of canter, he chooses a more moderate trot instead of flipping up those toes.

It's very instructional to watch Prince in turnout and at liberty. Even though his structured work is carefully planned to emphasize correct posture at all gaits, he always gets a chance to practice on his own, to show what he has learned from his formal work. I'm happy to note that he is choosing a much more correct bend to the left about a third of the time now.

He is extremely balanced in all kinds of interesting maneuvers, including rolling back and changing directions/leads. His lead changes are correct back to front and about 95 percent accurate, with no sign of a tendency to cross canter. He seems to love to gallop along, then roll back and push of smoothly in a new lead. Nice to see him naturally working off his hindquarters, though I'd still like to see him lift his back more.

Some evidence of foot soreness at the end of this week. Arizona is in the throes of it's monsoon season, so the sudden change from hard, baked ground to moist ground does cause issues with hooves. He's also gotten a bit long in the toes, while the sides have broken away nicely. I'm not surprised to see a change; I'm hoping he'll be able to adjust.

Week 5

Ten days off for Prince while his trainer took a vacation. In the meantime, he's had his feet trimmed and had time to adjust to the wet monsoon conditions. He's still a bit off on the left fore in a tight circle, but reportedly played hard in turnout while I was gone, with no signs of lameness, so the schooling goes on.

His first day back to work, we picked up right where we left off, with longe work on a short line over the pole. He did a great job mentally and physically. The next day wasn't as good. A storm was blowing in, and it was obvious the student wanted to get out and run off some energy instead of concentrate on his lesson. In spite of that, he was generally well behaved, if not as focused as I would have liked him to be.

After a turnout day, he was able to go back to work with a bit more diligence. He walked and trotted over a pole in the main arena, doing well after a reminder that he doesn't need to drop his inside shoulder and speed across the pole. After we'd worked a while, we were joined by one, then two, then three riders, all doing different things with their horses. He really wanted to watch what was going on, but learned that if he did that the pole jumped up and tripped him. The most exciting moment for Prince was when one of the horses started cantering on the rail. I could feel him start to coil up to take off, so made the circle in which he was working too small for cantering comfortably. After a couple tries, Prince relaxed back into his exercise.

Week 6 - August

Monsoon rains have left behind mud everywhere, and all the horses are enjoying a good wallow and plenty of turnout time, as untimely showers canceled several lesson sessions and left the arena free for play. Prince's first test of the week was whether he could and would choose to moderate his movement at liberty in the roundpen where there were a couple wet, potentially slick spots. He does love to careen around in there a certain amount, but he was very calm and attentive to my voice commands and didn't have a single slip. Also no spurting into the hyperextended trot. Yeah! The one downside of the wet ground is that Prince has developed some footsoreness, especially the left fore. It's slight, and no more than I've seen "sound" horses experience when the ground goes from concrete to river, but something to watch. He is barely off in the arena footing, but struggles a bit with the rocky areas of the stable and is very reluctant to cross the coarse gravel to the washrack. He's working in boots, which stay on until after his bath.

Despite the feet, he's starting to hold the circle better to the left at trot and canter. I love the photo at left, where he has lifted up his forehand and stepped beautifully through into a canter that just appears to float along. I especially like the way his back looks short and compact, while his stride looks long and fluid. (Compare the appearance of his back in this photo to the one above where he's hyperextending the trot.)

Someone who has observed Prince over the past six months or so commented today that he seems so happy and calm at the facility where he lives, saying how nice it is to see him focused and working happily. That really underscores for me how important the surroundings can be to the success of training and rehab efforts. And that doesn't mean a fancy stable, by any means. Appearance is certainly trumped by good, caring management, safe living and work spaces and an overall energy that is congenial to both horses and their humans. I actually think Prince is triving on his new routine. He seems eager to come out of his stall to see what the challenge of the day is. He seems relaxed in his living space, too, remaining relaxed even when the tractor dumps new in shavings while he's ion residence. Seeing him be so level-headed in so many situations gives me great hope that he will turn out to be a good, safe mount.