He's gone lanky! They go up at the back, up in front, longer ... in a repeating cycle when they are this age. He's gone long and lanky. I watch him carefully and his stifles are his weak points, and since he served some sizeable mares when he was two, I'm letting him grow in strength before he's asked to do anything strenuous with them. Because of both things, I've made a decision to hold back on hacking. He's already proved he's going to hack out alone really happily, so that's nothing needing any work. And if we hack, there's nothing but hills, and we have to complete the hack to get home. Whereas if we stay on the arena I can stop at any time. It's a wide arena, 30 meters, so even if he falls in on a circle I can simply move the circle and stop it being too tight. He came out really twitchy, for him, this morning. I wondered whether to lunge before getting on but decided to see what happened. He was fine. We walked and tried some circles. We tried canter but he is still only striking off left, so I left that alone and concentrated on a trot right with a nice right bend. Once we crack that reliably, I'm sure canter right will make a reappearance :) When I got off I took off my hat because it was hot. It spooked him to see and hear it rattle in my hand, and OMG is he full of presence when he lights up like that!! We spent a few seconds backing down the arena while I shook the hat, until he decided that it was probably more fun to stop and eat it :) Still feeling I've got a gem here. OH was in a meeting today, photos/vid of me on him soon I promise!
07-11-2018, 09:51 AM
Luscious Ludo goes lanky
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