Wizard Rides 341 and 342: The Best Around

Sunday, 3/11/12

Wizard and I took a ride on the trails with Lily and Sunny. Before we even left the property, he was prancing and jigging. We walked toward the outdoor arena and he started balking like he thought I was going to ride in there. So, of course, I then had to get him to go in the arena, even though we were not planning to ride in there. It was not difficult since I had two horses and riders who were perfectly willing to ride in there, and Wizard followed them right in.

On the trail, Wizard was not a fun ride at all. He was spooking and bottled up like he was going to launch. These were the same trails we rode a million times, and that we calmly traveled, on the buckle, all summer and the summer before. He wasn’t happy on the lead, he wasn’t happy in the middle, and he was not happy in the back. We had two tense moments, one as we were crossing the road, and one at the juncture where we head onto the last leg of the ride. All I could do was smile and sit quietly and get through the ride.

It was one of those trail rides that made me think, “whew!” when we set foot back on the farm property. And we walked up to the dressage ring for some trot work.

Blog readers, by now you can probably predict how the ride went in the dressage arena.

Yes, he was GREAT. Relaxed, responsive, rhythmic. We didn’t ride too long, because I had to get to work, but he was really good.

Scratching my head.

Monday, 3/12/12

And the next day, Wizardologists, I tacked him up in the same tack and rode at the same time of day. There was very little tail swishing when I got on this time. I went out on the short loop with Sunny, and we rode behind them. Wizard was calm, happy, perfect. No nervous chewing, no prancing, no dancing. Happy, flat-footed walk. When we got back to the farm, we rode in the dressage arena, and he was really good. We warmed up at a walk, and then trotted stretchy circles in both directions. Then, we worked on big-trot-little-trot, followed by serpentines.

My HOPE is that he’s finally feeling better from the Lyme treatment, but it is also the exact same time that he always feels better every winter/spring. Plus, they just started leaving the horses out at night last week. Who knows, but I hope this means I have the real Wizard back for the summer.