Wizard Ride 38: By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Monday 1/12/09

This weekend, we had the perigee moon, the biggest full moon of 2009. While tonight the moon was not full, it was a buttery gold when it rose and it had a beautiful ring around it in the clear January sky. I wish it was a little warmer and I would have been crazy enough to ride under it. I used to ride Alibar by moonlight at the old barn- it’s one of my fondest memories of him.

Tonight was a pleasantly quiet night. Sometimes I love the hum of a busy barn and I like the comings and goings of horses and riders. Sometimes I love to ride alone and focus completely on the horse. Tonight was one of those nights. My barn buddies finished early with their horses. Sarah was finished for the night and asked if I wanted a lesson, but I decided to try out everything we learned last week in a session by ourselves.

First, I hand walked Wizard for about a half a mile in the indoor arena (approx 8 laps around the indoor arena equals a mile). Then, I longed Wizard for about 10 minutes. While he longed, I kept his quarter sheet on him to help warm his muscles up.

Then, I took off the sheet and worked at the walk under saddle. We worked on small circles along a bigger circle- I used an opening rein to encourage the smaller soft circles. We worked on them in both directions. Then, we trotted. It was not the prettiest thing in the world, but it was not ugly! We trotted about 4 big circles in each direction, stopping to walk when needed. He was a lot easier to the left and he stretched into the bit a few times. His neck was tighter to the right and he began to rush a bit, which was a little frustrating until I remembered that this was our first time ever trotting alone for any extended period of time. Progress! I then worked Wizard at the walk as a cooldown. We walked down a series of poles in the center of the ring- he is very calm and willing to navigate obstacles. I dismounted, untacked him, and let him trot at liberty for about 5 minutes. In this cold weather, the horses don’t get quite as much exercise during turnout since they cannot really run on the frozen ground. I like to make sure Wizard gets a little time to stretch his legs. As he gets fitter, I can see him enjoying his playtime more and more.

I put his tack back on (loosely) to walk him into the barn- it’s good schooling for him and I did not want to carry it all back myself ;^) He was much better about grooming. I noticed a few hairs shed out on him and I think he’ll enjoy grooming MUCH more when he starts to shed all the way. I put Thrush Buster on his feet, put him in his stall, gave him two buckets of lukewarm water, and fed him a feed tub of Dengie. As I watched him chow down on his forage, I noticed how muscular he’s getting. He was in good pasture shape when I started riding him, but now the muscles are smooth and big, not short and ropey. It looks like he has also put on a few pounds. His coat looks lovely and as usual, his mane and tail are abundant. The Wizard is looking mighty fine!