A Year?!

It's really hard to believe it's been more than a year since my last blog post. I suppose that is bad and good: so busy, it's been hard to find the time to write a blog or it's a shame not to document my thoughts and feelings of the journey this last year. 

One thing is for sure, nothing ever stays the same. There have been moments of real triumph as when Walker and I got our finesse flying lead changes passed. Then getting the devastating news that he suffered a medial suspensory ligament injury in his right hind leg, leaving us up to this point, still not ready to finish our finesse audition. However, as this journey has shown me over and over, the bad comes with the good, you just have to learn to roll with it and make the most of it that you can.

The good news is his injury did not end his riding career, and Walker is almost fully rehabilitated now. But we've lost 6 months of not being able to trot or canter for most of that time. For an LBE like Walker, getting him back to that frame of mind when he was doing lovely cantering circles willingly and learning to do his flying lead changes without opposition is hard fought ground to have to recover. Not hard fought in the way many people would think, but in the Parelli program,  using psychology, communication and understanding on Walker's time line, a standard I meet 95% of the time now. 

To that end, I decided he had to learn to be ridden out in the park where we could do long lines of trotting and cantering, the best for rehabilitating his injury. It's been a bit crazy getting him to feel more confident out there and staying relaxed enough to listen for that which I am asking him to do. In addition, we've had an enormous amount of rain this summer, so being able to ride in the park on the gravel paths has been a needed godsend. 

And this past Friday, after about an hour of play on the ground and in the saddle, he did the most beautiful circles on a loose rein around one of the trees in the park, EVER. It's funny, he really seems to know when he's earned his release, because as soon as I asked him down to the walk, I could feel his confidence and "spark" rise. He gave me a huge and calm walk back to the barn. 

So, it won't be long before we get those finesse circles and lateral moves filmed, despite how challenging Walker is. He has been and continues to be one of my best instructors...