Guess Who's Still Got It?

Yep, my man, Speedy G. I hadn't ridden him since early August. After body work and hock injections didn't ease his lameness, under my vet's recommendation, I took him over to Alamo Pintado for a thorough lameness exam. As it turned out, Speedy's left hock was well on its way to fusing. He should have been lame long ago, but the guy hung on long enough to earn us a USDF Bronze Medal. You have to love horses with heart. His must be huge!

My favorite photo of all time - from our last show together.

My plan had been to give him the fall and winter off, but when a young woman reached out to me about local riding and training opportunities, I introduced her to Speedy. T has now ridden Speedy a few times, and it seems like a good match. She's just learning which means the work is pretty easy, and easy work is what Speedy seems to need. T is getting married soon, so she's been busy with wedding preparations which means she hasn't been able to ride for the past week or so.

Since Speedy has been 100% sound, I decided to hop on him on Saturday to see how he felt. I don't know who had more fun, him or me. I only rode him for 15 minutes, but he was ready for whatever I asked. We started with some easy trot work with a few trot to canter to trot transitions; I was mostly checking to see what has happened since T has been riding him. I also wanted to give him a little bit of a tune up to make sure his status as school master was still deserved.

After reminding him that yes, he can still go in a soft and round frame, I decided to see if he was willing to give me some flying changes. Boy, did he! We did one each way, and both were crisp and clean. And then, just to see if we could, I asked for three changes across the diagonal, a movement from Fourth Level, test 1. Easy peasy. Speedy G gave them to me as if we've been schooling them every day.

I'm going to stick with my plan of low level rides through the fall and winter, but I am definitely going to hop on board every now and then to check in on him. Both vets thought it likely that he'd need to retire from upper level work, but they didn't rule it out completely. If Speedy's game for more work this spring, I am in!