Wizard Session 438: Birthday Boy

Tuesday, 2/5/13

Today is Wizard’s 17th birthday. To celebrate, he had the day off from work on Monday, and got to graze in his favorite little field. Today, I took him out in the Assunpink for a 35-minute hand walk. It was chilly and snowing just a little bit, and Wizard had a spring in his step. There was a HUGE tractor thing on the road by the hunt club cleaning up trees from last week’s storm. On the way out, Wizard gawked at it through the trees, and had an ear on the crunching sounds for most of our walk. On the way back, we walked right past it on the road. He was on his toes, but was actually much better about it when it was closer to him. As we passed it, he kept himself at a flat-footed walk, even when it crunched down a huge branch.

When we returned to the barn, we did some long line work in the indoor arena. It was yet another fantastic session. I increased the walk-trot-walk transitions, and we also worked on our lengthenings like we did on Sunday. The thing that really impressed me was after the canter work, when his topline was swinging, relaxed, and soft. His trot was loose and rhythmic, and he was softly chewing the bit instead of champing on it. The sessions are short and sweet, but we get a lot done. It feels like we’ve made some really great progress. I can’t wait to start riding him again.