Shoes!

Mystery solved.

What my horse needed to move forward without hesitation? A pair of shoes! He was shod last Saturday and after a few days of shoe wearing we're moving forward. In fact, now instead of worrying about how to get a trot out of the guy, I'm wondering how do I make him walk. He's all peppy and ready to go. He'll even canter on cue!

Of course now I feel horrible. Shoes. It's so simple. In some ways I'm grateful it wasn't figured out quickly. We've made tremendous progress on respect both on the ground and under saddle that all came about because of his nasty mood under saddle.

We had a super fantastic weekend this last week. We went to the vet and got a tube up the nose to see about his potential dorsal displacement or larynx paralysis. He was a total superstar patient, didn't even need a twitch for the second tubing! He does have a partial paralysis on his left side as many TB's do and there is question that when he's put into a working frame and exerting energy that he may experience discomfort from his dorsal not having super strong muscle, but overall we're not going to faint from lack of oxygen and he shouldn't experience anything too upsetting.

After the vet we went on a trail ride! We swung back to the barn, picked up Inky and went on a ride. It was quite relaxing and we CANTERED on the trail. A first for sure. It was thrilling and calm all at the same wonderful time. I was a little nervous that some crazy racehorse urge would overtake him and he'd rush past Inky out of control. But he was happy to lope, yes lope, quietly behind Inky down the trail.

The next day Rusty had his first day trip to an arena. We went to the other side of the island, where we will be soon attending at TB show, to practice our skills in a full size arena. Rusty was pretty snorty and concerned with all doorways and entrances. But seriously, overall he amazed me. He had some beautiful trot work and was very willing to work through his nervousness. We went for a ride across the property where he even led through the scary parts! He was amazing.

We're doing good. Things are looking up and I'm excited for all the incredible adventures that await as the days brighten up and the sun stays out longer...