Still Passaging

I had Wednesday off from my office job and I decided to spend the entire day with ponies. I had morning and evening lessons to teach, but a whole midday open for my own horses. I'm taking Sunny in the bombproofing clinic this weekend because TC is just plain boring at these clinics, but Sunny isn't ridden all that regularly so I figured I'd like to get him out at least once before I have to spook him. 

Sunny was really good, we walked down the road and then trotted along the access road, then ended with a quick walk/trot/canter in the arena. He did spook a little bit, so it was nice to see what his go-to maneuver was before I proceeded to spook him for four hours this weekend. He mostly just wanted to spin, so that's good to know. 

When I got back to the barn, Rico nickered at me. 

That might seem normal, but let me tell you it's not. Rico is the quietest horse unless he's screaming for other horses. He's NEVER nickered at me. Ever. TC screams his head off at me and anyone else who acknowledges his presence. But Rico just stares at you when you come over to him, that's the best you get, a stare. Most of the time he honestly looks away from you. To have him nicker at me was wild. 

I love him

Looking pretty good for almost 25 after not being
ridden much for four years

The last time he was ridden regularly was when TC was at the rehab facility in early to mid 2016. Then in late 2016, Rico came down with internal pigeon fever and we almost lost him. From then on, he always felt really weak to ride, like "I hope he doesn't fall down" weak. He was also never really sound again. Fine for a ride occasionally but always left me feeling worse that before I went to ride him. It's no fun to watch your once spectacular Grand Prix horse seem so weak. So I stopped riding him and just hung out with him on the ground when I went down to the ranch. 

But the nicker, I took that to mean that he wanted to come out. I put my mom's very uncomfortable bareback pad with stirrups on him. 

My plan was just to see what he wanted to do. Walk around and stare at cows? Fine. Spook at stuff? Fine. Whatever he wanted. 

Passaging around like that's the only two beat
gait he has in him lol

Why, Rico?

He wanted to passage, apparently. I tried to trot him, I really did. He just passaged! I tried to push him out of the passage and he kept giving me more and more lift in the passage. So we just passaged quietly around the arena for a while. Then he started trotting and I finally could post and then he stopped abruptly to stare down the road at cows. So we stopped and stared at cows. 

I asked him to canter and the first stride was him yanking me out of the tack to shake his head and threaten to buck, so we went back to our endless passaging. At one point I asked him to walk and he transitioned into piaffe. Um, okay. 

So we passaged and piaffed a bit until he decided that he'd rather trot, so off we went in trot. 

I didn't ask him to stay on the spot obviously

Unfortunately better than TC's lol

The whole time he felt strong and SOUND. Like, sound. Actually sound. It was probably the soundest he'd felt to me since mid 2016, maybe even sounder than that. He wasn't bending very well, nor was he on the bit obviously, but he was pretty comfortable. Not stepping short behind or ouchy in front. 

Earlier this year, my mom gave him a larger section of the pasture and put him in between Sunny and Riot. He really likes hanging out with them, so he's moving around way more going back and forth to see them. And then a couple times a day he canters into the barn for food and with more room, that's more cantering. I'm not sure if it's that or some other reason? Maybe his hocks finally fused or my farrier made some changes or it was just luck that he felt good that day. Whatever it is, I'm so glad he's feeling good. 

When he finally trotted lol 

We are so dorky, I might get him his own bareback
pad with stirrups to ride him in because this one is
just awful lol

I don't think he's got more dressage left in him. The neck arthritis, especially, is going to forever limit him. But I think I still want to ride him a little bit, as long as he's okay with that. If he's not, I'll obviously lay off him, he doesn't owe me anything else. But if he wants to go out and get ridden a couple times a week, I'd love to play with him this winter. There's video on my ig by the way (@alchemy.dressage), I can't be bothered to make gifs.