From racing to riding... the training diary of an off the track Standardbred

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Pics from Ride, Shots, Ride

Jet got his shots yesterday as well as the strangles vaccine and coggins. We had the vet do the shots in his bum instead of his neck to see if he has the same reaction. I woke up today and there was only a small bump (like a mosquito bite size) on his bum where they gave the shots! The vet suggested going for "a light hack" today so he doesn't get stiff and sore. It was a nice and cool day so Mom and I trucked the horses down to Hobby Horse for a trail ride. We went around in the ring a bit to get a feeling of how stiff the horses were. Elsa was very stiff in the neck, but Jet was just fine! I did maybe 3 or 4 laps of trot in each direction to see how he felt. The rest of the day was basically walking. We went all around the fields just letting the horses have a nice walk. We did a short trot here and there but nothing to work up a sweat. All in all, he was very good and I think it was nice to get him out and about just relaxing.

Before the vet came yesterday, I lunged Jet since I didn't think I would have enough time to ride and because we haven't lunged in a while. I had to remind him that I was directing him where to go, he wasn't jsut going to gallop around. We did lots of walk and trot and a fair amount of canter too! I set up two ground poles so that he could trot in, pick up a cnater over the first one, then have a bounce to the second one. He handled it very well! I moved them closer at the end so he could trot over them so that he knew groundpoles didn't mean jump. It took him a few times to get the striding but he got it at the end and I was pleased!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day so we will go for a ride. Still not going to go full out but we are going to do more than today.

Here are pics from the ride with M-k and Abby:

He usually follows me to the mounting block but he stopped and I was trying to call him over. I failed!

Trotting

I love my horse!

Double Bareback!

Jet, 7/27/10

I got artistic! Katie is in the background

Jet with his friend


-Em and Jet