*Joe's Journey

So no pictures today of me and Joe, you guys know what we look like now anyway lol - I did work with Joe today though.  We did an hour on the lunge line and then I rode him for half an hour. 

Each horse that I work with shows me their different needs.  Joe is no exception.  He is a very sensitive boy and he has some serious trust and confidence (in humans, not himself) issues.  He is not afraid of things and he is not spooky at all, but, he had very little training and not a lot of handling prior to me getting him and so he does not have a lot of experience trusting people - and he will be 14 this year!

I have trained other aged horses to ride, but in the past the horses had lots of handling and training before I started doing their saddle work.  So I have had Joe two years now and while I started him a couple of times under saddle over the past two years, other horses always took priority and so he was put back out to wait a little longer.  I finally realized that he wasn't getting any younger and it was time to get serious with him - which is when his journey really began a couple of months ago.

First of all, he was not comfortable on his feet - they seemed to bother him - I even had the vet look at him and she said he was sound on the pavement, his flex tests, etc., were all fine.  He did seem a bit stiff in one hip to me so I put him on a good glucosamine/msm supplement.  Then I decided to have shoes put on him - to see if it would ease his discomfort in his feet and it did help quite a bit - he had very flat feet and bruising on his soles (poor boy), he was really stabbing the ground and wearing his feet off flat, putting the shoes on really helped to relieve this!  He now has winter shoes on, which is really great for his footing confidence and it continues his hoof rehab therapy - I hope he can go without shoes some day, but right now he is delighted to be able to walk around and not have his feet hurt.

So he has trouble accepting much pressure of any kind so I have not been putting too much on him, some, but not a lot... but it is time that he begin to accept it so that is what we are working on.  He already will give easily to fingertip pressure on the ground - I can move his hind quarters and his forehand around, he will flex his neck easily as well, but he has not really accepted the pressure from the bit - I have been lunging him in long sidereins and he "appears" to be framing himslef, but this is partially an evasion of contact with the bit.  So today and for our future work, he will have to work with much shorter sidereins and learn to accept some pressure on his mouth.  That is what we worked on today.  When I got on him today, we worked on one rein stops from the walk and also from the trot - I am a firm believer, if you can't stop well, you shouldn't go very far or very fast! LOL

So, a bit of news as well - I went to see and decided to bring home a "very" nice, tall Curly/Clydesdale mare.  I need another horse like I need a hole in the head, but I just couldn't say no to her!  She is as sweet as she looks too - I just have to go and pick her up this week - you will be hearing lots more about *Ruby I think!  We took pictures of course - here she is: