Wizard Session 434: Until the Next Time

Sunday, 1/6/13

I’m milking every moment of this week’s streak of mild weather. Wizard and I took a hand walk in the Assunpink on Sunday morning. Wizard wore his fluorescent yellow saddle pad under a surcingle to increase our visibility. We were out for about 45 minutes. In order to work on Wizard’s strength and balance, I asked him to do some halts on the hills. He cheerfully obliged.

When we were rounding the turn to head up the big hill, I heard hounds. I could not tell if they were in the kennels at the hunt club or out on a hunt until we got closer. Wizard was VERY good as we walked past the members of the hunt and past the trees where the hounds were working on a scent. They were loud, and Wizard was concerned, but listened to me the whole time. Good boy!

When we got back to the barn, we worked in the outdoor arena on long lines. I tried warming him up with the long lines attached to the bit, but he immediately curled behind and would not get in front of the vertical. I hooked the lines to his longeing cavesson, and then he was able to settle and find a rhythm. Once he was warmed up and engaged, I was able to hook up the lines to his bit. He was even better than he was in our last session, and was eventually able to stretch out at the trot and do some relaxed trotting. I tend to back off whenever I think I’m overfacing him, but this was a perfect example of letting him figure something out. It took a few minutes, but he did get into the groove.

After our session, he enjoyed some grass in the spare paddock. Days like this make January not so bad.