Riding is Riding

Despite having that ugly wound on his heel/pastern, I took Izzy out this weekend for several walking rides. He's getting bored, and a bored Izzy is not a good thing. Even though that wound is still ugly (but definitely improving), he's not lame on it, and it doesn't seem particularly sore. He lets me scrub it pretty vigorously, and even when bandaging it he acts ho-hum about the whole thing. He's usually trying to grab my phone out of my back pocket or lick my head.

Besides wanting to keep him from hurting himself again out of boredom, I'm still working on getting him happy about our new hitching rail. I am also trying to tweak the system, but Izzy's getting much more comfortable in the new space. Once he was tacked up, I used the mounting block down at the barn and rode up to the arena. The one thing I did notice was that his walk was very fluid and relaxed. His stride was longer, and I am hoping that it's a result of the work we did a week or so ago on my saddle fit.

Lots of walking.

We didn't work long, just 10 -15 minutes each time, but I was happy with how good he felt. He wasn't lame at all, and he seemed really happy to stretch down. All we did was walk, but I knew that was plenty. He was feeling me in my newly adjusted saddle for the first time, so I wanted to make sure he was comfortable with the changes that were made. I don't want to aggravate the wound on his foot, but it might be healed enough for some light work this weekend.

​For now, even walking is riding.