In March I had a much needed talk with a co-worker who owns a horse. The point of the conversation? That at 30 I know plenty about horses, especially THIS horse, and I shouldn't be letting other people make decisions for me about what's best for him. The result of the conversation? Lyric and I moved barns at the beginning of July. Our new barn is much fancier than we really need. It has an indoor dressage ring, an outdoor dressage ring, a jumping field, a track around the pastures with some mini-cross country jumps, and trails that lead to even more arenas we can use. Oh, and it's across the road and about 100' from access to Duke Forest trails we can ride on. The turnout is also pretty much ideal. They rotate pastures (~ 2-3 acres?) once a month for each of the 2 groups of geldings (4-6 horses). The mares have a larger field and don't get rotated, but there are also only 3 of them. So now we have access to multiple riding terrains and buddies.
The change has been incredible. We went from barely being able to ride once a week without massive muscle soreness to riding 3-5 times a week (even in the 100+ degree heat) with only a little bit of stifle soreness to show for it. His stifles took a major hit these past couple months with the crappy turnout, so I'm hoping he's just sore from building muscle. I noticed tonight that he's no longer dragging his hind toes on straight-aways in the outdoor dressage arena (which has less deep footing, but still). So I think we can actually start making some goals!
Goal #1: Continue building strength. I tend to get a bit impatient, so I don't want to push him too hard too fast. Right now I figure we can handle 20-30 min of "work" and then go for a trail ride. I'd like to get that to 45 minutes of walk/trot/canter, but I need to remember to build up to that over the course of a month or two.
Goal #2: Work on his curling. If I wanted to show Arab Costume, Lyric's head position/speeds are great. We've got a great long trot and hand gallop. I'd like to be able to control his speed just a little better than that, and part of that is teaching him to go "through". Right now leg = faster tempo and rein contact = bend your neck at the 3rd vertebrae. We need to develop more "oomph" and throughness, which will hopefully come as we add strength.
Goal #3: Keep it fun! We have all these new options for what to do, so I want to make sure that I don't bore him to death with drilling or circles. There's no reason we can't work on not curling out on the trails or pop over some tiny jumps to keep things interesting. But again, I have to remember not to overdo it!
Goal #4: Keep track of our progress. I'd really like to start taking monthly conformation shots to track how his body changes over the next couple months. I wish I'd gotten a picture the day I moved him, but oh well. I'm sure there are plenty more dramatic improvements left to come!
