I slapped on the boots, the bareback pad and clipped my reins to his flat-banded nylon halter. At first he looked at me suspiciously and made a move to walk away (then quickly got distracted by a bucket of food placed dumbly in the middle of the barn aisle.) but once we stepped outside he was clearly on his toes. By the time we got to the pasture I could feel he was pretty wired throughout his entire body. He stood still for me to mount (barely, tensely) from the trailer wheel-well (great place to mount - will have to remember that) and enthusiastically took off at a FAST walk.
We made a loop around the edge of the pasture and back, a total of about 15 minutes, start to end. His back has such poor muscling that I just can't bring myself to stress his spine with my weight too much right now. I was surprised however in the ease at which he carried me for the most part.. then again I am trying my best nowdays to be a model of near perfect balance for him. This includes the ever careful alignment of my spine in proper orientation with his and keeping our center of gravities 'together' - one very good example is riding downhill: I do a mini 2-point seat. I tried this experiment several years back when I was still exploring riding before he got sick, turns out once I moved my center of gravity forwards, but in a balanced way D responded by moving down hills more freely and happily. Traditional riding logic would think that strange, but it kind of makes sense considering through out all my jump and huntseat training how I was taught to be balanced and light in all situations, even downhill. It was dressage training later that ruined part of my seat, ironically.
ANYWAYS! (tangents, tangents)
Back to the ride. D was feeling quite full of himself an opinionated - there was much head shaking, some impressive 90-degree turns (O.O did I mention I was bareback?), and on the way back to the gate a jig or two. Actually on the way back I afforded myself a treat, and when I see him today we will see if it was too much... but... I kept just enough contact to keep his head up, while letting him prance his way into a bouncy, collected trot. Normally I would strongly encourage him to walk again, fearing my merciless bouncing on his poor spine and his delicate hooves - but this time I said 'forget it. I'm just gonna sit here and stay balanced and hope he doesn't decide to buck me off in the end." (as he was still 100% wired). What came out of it was one of those events that really stick with you - those moments where you're in perfect harmony with your horse and both of you are enjoying whatever gait you're going along at, in relative easy and happiness. His head was up, neck tall fully extended, his poll flexed only slightly and although I bounced alittle, his back felt like a springy suspension bridge. If I tried I could almost imagine that I felt his front hooves hitting the ground independently - correctly. For those few strides he felt balanced, excited, powerful and truly perfect to ride.
Had dusk not been creeping in over the fields I think I would have wanted another round of the pasture, but as it was the cold air and impending darkness (along with wayyy too many strange horses trying to sniff his butt) was making D alittle jumpy/insecure. I am still trying to ride the fine line between our workouts and keeping him from feeling forced, alone and scared. It will come with time, but part of that comes from me respecting his feelings on any given issue. I was disappointed to note though that after 15 minutes of excitedly lugging me up and down pasture hills - he was not even WARM. It was like it had been no exertion at all!
Note to self: 30 minute ride/walks are DEFINITELY in order now!
I'm excited to see what today tells about lastnight's excursion. Was this too much? Will he be sore? Stiff? Depressed?
Or will I walk up to a bright eyed and bushy tailed horse?
Ahh that's the story of his entire recovery: you never know what tomorrow brings.
So I've decided to enjoy 'today' as it were when we can...
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