Spring Schedule

Rose is still growing, and she does it in the typical see-sawed butt high fashion. Looking at the most recent photo of her with her clip job I realized that she's evened out again. She's been butt high since November and was still butt high the beginning of December when the vet came out to do her teeth and measured her. She was 16.0h solidly on the line (using a real stick with a level on it). I wonder what she measures now? Everyone that meets her thinks she's bigger than 16.0h, but I have to wonder if it's just because of her HUGE personality? She's also nice and round and is filling out as well, which certainly gives her more presence. I intend on sticking her again, as the stick lives at the barn, but I need to get her accustomed to it first. She wasn't having it before, so we took the easy road at the time and waited for the vet to sedate her out for her float. If I can train her to accept clippers on her ears this should be a cinch!

Since she is still growing I've decided to dial back my training schedule just a bit. Now that the extra energy has gotten out of her system and she's got her head in the game again, I don't think she needs to be worked 5 days a week at the moment. My plan is to ride her 3-days a week and longe her on a 4th day working with a surcingle and side reins. That should be plenty of work for her little brain and growing joints. Of course when we have a show coming up I might ride her an extra day for a week or two just to get her really tuned up. Tonight though is our first longeing only night and it will be her first time in side reins in over two months.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!