Goals for Sunny!

A couple weeks ago, the pony seemed iffy, so I gave him a couple of days off and some bute and then have been bringing him back slowly. It coincided with him getting new shoes and him getting zippy on the side of the road, so I think he was just a bit foot sore. 

With Sunny, we have to be careful because he has silicosis and therefore his neck is a little iffy (read more about silicosis here). I've noticed the more he's ridden, the better his neck feels and the better he feels in his balance and strength. Unfortunately the time off set him back a little bit in that department so I'm kind of starting over with his neck. Luckily we know each other better now so the moment he said "meh" to going on the bit, I rode him on a loose rein for a week. 

Then last week, he started to ask to stretch to contact a bit, so we started doing that for a little bit each ride. This week, hopefully he'll be able to do a little bit more and a little bit more. And then we'll be back to work! 

Pony is not great at putting his ears forward for
behind the ears pictures

But honestly, there's really no agenda for him. I've been enjoying jumping him but Flounder moves barns this weekend so I have my first lesson back on him on Sunday! I still want to use Sunny for practice in between jumping lessons, but if he is uncomfortable, obviously we will not be jumping. He's sixteen years old and while for a Morgan, that isn't super old, he's still had some wear and tear on those joints!

I'm hoping to do a Working Equitation clinic on him at the end of the month. I keep forgetting to drop off the entry though. Hopefully there is still room by the time I actually get my entry in. I'm curious to see how he likes WE and have half a mind to try to compete him next year if he's into it. He's super maneuverable and he doesn't like to knock things over like a certain gray horse who will probably get himself eliminated at the first obstacle. 

His mane is out of control lol

My only main goal for Sunny is to keep him going for my mom. Ever since I started riding him, my mom has been so excited. She's always really wanted to ride him for real, like get on the pony 3-4 days a week and trail ride with my dad on the weekends, but she's had all sorts of reasons why she doesn't do it. Then she gets herself nervous to get on him because he hasn't been ridden in a while. My dad will just hop on Riot without him having gone out in a while and will ride down the road. But my mom is a little more nervous about doing that. Granted, Riot's worst behavior is splaying his legs and snorting at something while little Sunny is a quick SOB. 

Me having the pony going though? Riding him around and around in the arena while she watches from her office? She's totally jealous. She wants to ride him. If I'd known that this was all it was going to take, I'd have started riding him years ago! It's way easier to ride him when TC is at the same barn though. 

So now my goal is to get him going the way she wants him to. She said her main issues are that she doesn't like having to nag him to keep going and that she feels like he's not balanced and might fall down. Now that he's fitter, the balance issues (which I think stemmed from his neck being what he used to balance, now he uses his topline better) are gone and the forwardness is better too. 

I just love these trails

She's in physical therapy right now for a minor injury but is doing really well so should be able to start riding soon! I'm excited to have some help from her to keep him going since I do run out of time some days and would like to start adding in some more gym time for myself instead of riding him 5x/week.

I have a secret plan to try to get her to do some trail trials with me or even just an obstacle clinic. Honestly just getting her to trail ride with me would be great. One of her college friends is in the area and has a horse, I think I want to try to get them together to trail ride (and I'd go too since I want to take TC on those trails). 

And my other plan is to take her up to her childhood trails and for us to ride together there like we did when I was a baby. Apparently she would put me on double with her and we'd just ride and ride. Then later she'd pony me on my dad's horse (I wasn't allowed off the line until I could canter and I was a brat about that). 

I can't remember the last time I got to trail ride with my mom, maybe five or six years ago? I'm not okay with that being our last trail ride together.