Spring Time in Northern Michigan

It's an absolutely beautiful day! Yesterday was too. All afternoon at work on Friday I fantasized about giving Toby a bath. I couldn't wait to get rid of the 6 months of grime he has accumulated on his skin and coat. So I gave him a full blown bath after work. All that did was transfer the dirt and hair from him to me. But we had a good time. And when he dried out I could see dapples!



I tacked up Toby and went to the outdoor ring. I am still working on building up the strength in his back and hind end. So we are doing most of our work at the walk and trot. Toby is doing so well! Once he was warmed up, we started working on walk/trot transitions while keeping him in his frame. He was awesome! In fact, he was so good that I was left behind on a couple walk to trot transitions! When he starts the trot from his hind end I get thrown to the back seat of the bus! I laughed and praised him like crazy. I became much more prepared for it after that. A couple times, when I was left behind, I caught him with the bit but I think he figured it out that he did the right thing (and I screwed up). By the end of the ride he was a rock star in my book. Our issue seems to be walking, especially if I start to collect him at the walk. He starts to do a slow paced jig in his anticipation of trot even though I don't go to trot for a long time after that. This is something we will definitely need to work on. I also, for the first time in a long time, asked him to canter. Toby is a heavy on the forehand canterer. But he seemed lighter to me and much more collected than what I remembered him to be. All our walk/trot work is paying off!

Tuesday will be out lesson day so we will see how we do in the eyes of the professional. But I think we are doing pretty darn well!

After working Toby, I hosed him down and let him have a pick of grass. He's really getting fit so he only had a very light sweat and wasn't breathing heavy. The hosing down was mostly to get another layer of grime and winter hair off.

I eventually put him back out with his pasture mates. I went back to hand water the indoor arena in anticipation of the rainy weather in our forecast. When I went back out to check on Toby this is what I found...



He was in a deep sleep with his girlfriend, Dixie, watching over him. Talk about a relaxed guy! He was twitching and snoring just like my dog. If you look closely in the picture you can see a poof of dust come up from his breathing.

Then the party ended because he heard me shooting photos...



He was still in semi sleep mode and had his lower lip just flapping in the wind.

I guess I wore him out. There's nothing like a content horse...