Since the semester started I haven’t had as much time to work with Scout – I spend far more time picking up poop than actually handling my horses. If I get to ride more than once a week, I’m very lucky. So I wasn’t completely surprised that Scout has regressed with bridling. It took about ten minutes to get it on him yesterday, and I never got the brow band on – he kept spooking at that, so I had to take it off. I got the bit in his mouth once, and then he jumped back, forcing me to start over. At one point I was just going to quit and do more ground work, but I thought I’d give it one more try, and I’m actually glad I did.

I thought maybe he was concerned about the bridle because he didn’t like pressure on the bit, so I tried to ride him much more lightly. I don’t think I am hanging on the bit with that much pressure, but he’s very sensitive. For most of the ride last night, he was very good. He had a nice engaged trot that was easy to post to, he picked up the correct canter lead every time, and he usually went from a walk to a canter, which is unusual for him. He got a bit too excited in the canter the first time and threw his head around when I wanted him to slow down, but after that he was willing to transition back to a trot.

He has a tendency to want to break into a trot from a walk, and I usually use my seat to keep him walking. Basically, I follow his walk by rotating back and forth with his walking motion, and that seems to make it nearly impossible for him to break into a trot. I can use the same motion to ask him to transition from a trot to a walk. This motion is probably described best in Connected Riding by Peggy Cummings.

Scout has been playing hard to get also, again probably from not working with him as regularly. I’ve been trimming a number of other horses at the farm, so I wonder if horses get jealous. I expect to move him closer to home soon, so hopefully I will be able to get out more frequently to play with him.

He developed some lameness a couple of times in the last few weeks. The first time, he was much better after I trimmed him. The hoof wall on his right front foot had grown out much faster on the outside, and he was better after I trimmed him. He might need more frequent trims. Then the farm ran out of grass hay and was feeding him alfalfa, and he was lame again within a few days. I wasn’t certain it was the hay, but I bought some hay that was at least 90% grass, and in just a couple of days, he had improved, and after four days, I rode him with absolutely no lameness, not even the tripping he was doing during the summer. So from now on, NO alfalfa for Scout!