Well Monday was not as planned. The heat index was over 105 degrees and I'm not fighting with Bogey and trying to bring him back in that heat, so he got another day off. On Sunday I did take him out and hand walk him and lunge him a little and I saw some improvement so hopefully it is noticeable and not just me being "Bogey blind".
Today we are going to start riding again, there were thunderstorms this morning and more planned for the evening so hopefully it will cool off a little and I can get out and ride.
At this mornings feeding Bogey did have a little fill in his legs, which I'm thinking might be due to the humidity and weather so I'll walk him out this afternoon and see if it goes away.
That's all on the Bogey front, hopefully riding time today, but I'm not going to push it if the fill does not go away.
Bogey got his hocks done this morning. Dr. Kittleson said that his right hind was very dry and it needed it badly. The left wasn't as dry but she said there might be arthritis starting in the fetlock joint so he's not on a joint supplement as well.
All in all, it wasn't too expensive, only $90 for both of the hocks done. I also had her do shots and float his teeth. He has the softest teeth around, hooks and sharp edges every year to file down. He was fairly well behaved, balked a little at going into the examining room but after that is was fine. She didn't even sedate him for the injections, he just stood there like a champ.
He'll get the rest of today, Saturday and Sunday off to rest and I'll slowly start him back up on Monday.
I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but he looked like he was moving better already - just walking back to the barn! I'm excited to see how great he'll move after this!
Tonight I had another video consultation session with Jamie Novak. We only did a half session because we both could see from the video that Bogey was hurting and decided we are taking a short break until his hocks are done on Friday.
Well for some background information on the video. My sister and I shot the video on Sunday late afternoon, it was hot out and Bogey was hurting. I didn't realize/acknowledge the fact until half way through the ride. On Saturday, I took Bogey over to a friend's house to ride and she just had new sand put into her arena, needless to say it was deep and not good for Bogey's already sore hocks.
The ride on Sunday was filled with refusals to go forward, me nit-picking and picking fights, and Bogey not doing his best. For the video it catches a segment in the middle that doesn't look so bad.
Jamie wanted me to go even further and do more of what we are doing, the serpentine and donut shapes at an increased level of headset. She explained what she'd like to see in a super low dressage headset to have him learn to break at his shoulder point and not 12 inches from his poll which he is doing now. This will help him create lift from the shoulders and the rock back.
For me she wanted me to roll my shoulders back and open my rib cage. This has been a problem of mine for years and since I've always ridden young green horses I hunch over just waiting for something to happen - not good. So we'll have to work on that one!
I asked her about his talent level and what caliber horse he is. Now mind you this is the horse I bought off of videos and spent pennies on. She said he was most definitely an amateur breed show level horse and if she got her hands on him for a while she's thinking and open caliber horse! Isn't that exciting! She said he has a lot of talent and she loves his look and his movement. Now I asked her if she was just saying that and she wasn't, she was being totally honest! I think that is amazing - so the sky's the limit where Bogey and I are concerned!
For a Christmas present my mother bought a video consultation training series from a trainer I admire, Jamie Novak from Brainerd Minnesota. We have just now gotten started on the consultation series and are doing our second session tomorrow. I will be posting what she says and my videos here to remind myself as well as see what you all think.
For our first session she asked to see him walk, jog and lope both directions and just do a normal training session on him. Here's the video.
Jamie stated that I have wonderful hands and seat. What do you think? Bogey takes a lot of leg to ride so sometimes you can see my legs doing strange things.
On the Bogey front, she feels that he is in need of hock injections. She felt he looked sore and his mouth gaping/refusals were a direct link to the soreness. This makes complete sense, he was campaigned as a lunge liner and futurity horse, so it seems he is just asking for the injections.
She liked his "throughness" and how bridled up he was. She thought he had hollowness issues and his back needed to be lifted as well as taking the neck line down lower.
Jamie doesn't like forehand turns at all, and feels that they are only good for a horsemanship pattern. She stated that they push a horse down onto their forehand too much. I was doing the forehand turns to have him gain awareness of his hindquarters (they are so far away from his brain) and reach. I like to be able to have my horse be very handy and be able to do it all. I'm going to lay off the turns but still keep them in my back pocket, just because I'd like my horse to have the knowledge and abilities.
Some suggestions on tack Jamie gave were to use draw reins on him and a medium twist bit. For the exercises she wanted us to do serpentines, donut shapes and piaffes like movements as well as using walking pivots and some stop pivots.
Well what do you think? What should we work on? Any recommendations, tips or tricks?
