A horsey New Year's Eve

I slept a long time.  10 hours?  12 hours?  Let's just say many.  It felt great.  I needed that.

JD made me a bagel, I took an Imitrex (migraine day two, yay!) and I mellowed out while it took effect.  And then I went to the barn.

I hadn't seen Pluto in over a week.  I was a little nervous.  Sometimes he gets mad when I'm gone too long, you know.  Plus, I left before the end of his antibiotics.  What if he weren't better?

When I got there, I dropped the halter on the ground while I went to check out his round bale of hay.  When I came back, he had his nose down on the halter.  "Put the halter on me!" he was saying.  So I did, and he had apparently chosen today to wear his Perfect Gentleman disguise.  He didn't even flinch when his girth fell to the ground from on top of the saddle.  I had forgotten it was there when I was lifting the saddle onto him.  What a change from a few years ago, when he would have lost his mind.

We walked very calmly and casually to the arena.  I put him on the longe to watch for short strides in his back end.  He didn't look like he was *quite* reaching as far as I wanted, but when I checked his hoofprints he was overstriding.  Good enough.  I switched from longe line to reins and took him over to the mounting block.  He played keepaway for a few seconds, but didn't seriously protest.  Second good enough.

I rode him briefly, maybe twenty minutes.  He clearly wanted to trot (so did I) but I kept him to a brisk walk.  We did a lot of bending, lateral work, and figures.  It's so easy to forget there's no bit in his mouth now.  I do think I'll try reintroducing the bit after it gets warmer out - just because if something should happen and I needed to sell him, it would be good for him to be accustomed to it.

I threw a leg over the saddle and slid down his left foreleg like a firepole.   It's so much farther to the ground than it used to be!  I can't believe he got tall.  I didn't WANT him to get tall.  But tall he is.  I'm not sure how tall exactly - I need level, firm ground and a good measuring stick to be certain.  But he's definitely over 16 hands.  Sheesh.  Also, he has withers now.  I didn't know horses could suddenly grow withers.  He was round and witherless his whole life, and now there he is with withers.  I like it.  It keeps the saddle in place.  It's weird, though.

I am so pleased that he has turned into a gentleman.  Kind of a smart gentleman, too.  He is SO much more pleasant to be around than he used to be.  All those years of struggling with him, trying to teach him manners, trying to keep him from destroying his environment.. I'm not saying they paid off, but at least they seem to be over.

I have hopes.  Possibly misplaced hopes.  I hope that with sufficient physical therapy, I'll be able to trot my horse this year.  I will work at abdominal exercises like a veritable demon if it means I can go back to doing that.  I don't need a sixpack.  I just want to trot my horse.