Wizard Session 324: Close to the Edge

Monday, 12/26/11

I’ve been visiting Wizard and letting him play in the indoor arena, but he has not gotten much work under his belt lately. He got a pair of EquiFit T-Boots for Christmas (thanks, Mom!) and the M/L size seems to fit. I like the way the foam molds to his leg when it gets warm.

Wizard is overdue for shoes (7 weeks when he’s usually on a strict 6-week schedule), so I was worried about him pulling a shoe. I put bell boots and his T-Boots on him. Mr. Sensitive acted like the bell boots were absolute torture, and stamped them like flies until he got used to them. I let him roll and play around in the indoor arena, and then we went in the round pen. I’ve done very little round pen work, so it was fun to give it a try. Wizard trotted to the left very nicely, but spun a few times to the right. The round pen took away his options, though, and it was super-easy to get him back in the correct direction. I could tell that the round pen was a little stressful for him- he broke out in a light sweat just from a little trot work. I kept the session extremely short because it was mentally taxing for him- we maybe did 5 minutes in the round pen. I’m interested in doing a little more work with his downward transitions in the round pen- hopefully, they will keep it set up in the arena for a while so we can get the hang of it.

I cooled him out and put him to bed with some hay. The weather is getting cooler, but it’s still pretty nice- no awful ice… yet.