Kadey is 95% sound!!!

Kadey is 95% sound!!!

I visited him on Saturday morning - he met my boyfriend, they got along well :) - and he seemed a lot less tender when I led him down to the washbay to treat his hooves.

So today (Sunday) I gave him a light lunge to see how he went. He limped a teeny bit at the start of his trot work but was SO MUCH better! Last week he was visibly limping at the walk and clearly uncomfortable; this time he was fine and just limped a touch initially which disappeared after a minute or two. I even asked him for a canter in both directions and he had enough in him to do his usual 'lunge canter = bucking spree' moves.

I concentrated on a lot of transitions - walk/halt; walk/trot and just one trot/canter in either direction - to both give him some light work but also to get him used to listening to me and obeying commands. The 'stop' command is great now and we also seem to be speaking the same language now when it comes to the lunge aids for transitions.

Yay!

Going to spend much of this week lunging him and will try to book an evening or weekend session with my trainer for later this week as I think he's going to be a bit of a rocket under saddle! So much time off and full feed but no work = excitable horse!

But yay! I'm almost a bit shocked and scared - I've gotten used to just lunging and handling him; actually riding him, particularly given how silly he was last time, is a bit scary but I'm working on my mindset to change that. I'll blog later about a great motivational book I'm reading that has an interesting perspective on managing your fears and getting a better outcome and relationship with your horse when riding :)

Kadey was also really affectionate tonight. When I saw him on Saturday I hadn't seen him for two days and he was a bit standoffish. But tonight he was lovely, very affectionate and playful :D