So it turns out I did get Murray in a little over his head with schooling stadium right after a two week vacay, because the poor little pumpkin has such a sore tush right now that his hind end is tracking all crooked. Whoops! I really thought he would let me know that he was tired/struggling while schooling before we go to the point where he would get muscle sore after, but I guess we were both just having too much fun.
So I’ve been massaging his butt, sponging on liniment, and riding him around at a marching walk and loose trot to get the oxygen flowing back to those big muscles. It’s also January, which last year was when Murray’s hamstrings got so tight he was trying to hold himself up on the wall by pushing his butt into it and gave himself a huge blanket rub on his ass. So it’s not unexpected, and every day that I ride him he’s felt a bit better and with any luck we’ll be back in business next week. C’est la vie equestrienne.
I never take these pictures and am alarmingly bad at them.
Just because I’m not riding hard doesn’t mean we’re not working though. I rode in just a halter the last two days because why not (and also, New Good Horse attitude), and I added my quarter sheet today. We did leg yields, a little turn on the forehand, and even practiced some shoulder in and haunches in (our newest trick) all at the walk. Murray loooooves just having the halter on (or perhaps he looooooooves not having to work hard) and is even being a tiny bit of a dressage pony with halter contact which I think is super adorbs.
Alas, Murray’s disdain and hatred for our barn staff member R and his wife (who often helps muck) is getting pretty outrageously extreme, and the silly kid nearly ran away from me in the barn aisle today because the muck cart was coming down the barn aisle with — sacre bleu!!! — a dirty poopy bucket in it. I’m thinking I’ll have to pin a bag of treats outside Murray’s stall specifically for R to give him, so that Murray can stop being such a twit.
Since I can’t go XC schooling Sunday now (keeping it low key for the kid so he doesn’t actually injure himself), I’m going to day drink mulled wine and take photos of the people who are riding instead. Because day drinking.
Bonus picture: my dog makes the most amazing faces when she runs.
Zen and the Art of Baby Horse Management 