Since he came back from Florida after The Fork, Solo has been doing hills, which he hates, and schooling on the flat, which he is not fond of. Mostly he just likes to jump.
He still argues and grumps about going up hills. I can’t help feeling that something in his back finds hills very testing, and maybe a bit painful. He seems to get better as he is asked to do more and more trotting up and down the slopes. Being in Florida, he was on level ground all winter, all the horses that were on the Florida trip are grumbling about having to do hills again, but nobody grumbles like Solo.
On the flat he is doing more lateral work. Lots of spiraling into circles and leg yielding back out, plus shoulder in and haunches in. He is not super impressed, but he is pretty obedient. Supple he is not.
One backward step – he has started tossing his head again. I now think it must be either fly or allergy induced. However, when I get his back through and moving, it stops. I have had a horse with this before, it can be a bit of a pain to deal with and I have heard of people using Vicks on the nostrils or nose nets. I hope I can work it out under saddle. He does do it on the lunge but I don’t see him doing it in the paddock…..go figure. I am not convinced that it is not an evasion of the leg that starts with black flies but develops into a ‘way out’.
He is a big powerful horse now, a far cry from the horse we bought as a three year old. He is fully grown but he is still developing bulk and substance. Next year he will be a monster. We are trying to decide where his next party will be, maybe Checkmate – hopefully there will be some rain before then. I can’t believe I am worrying about the hard footing and it’s only May.
The photo was taken just two days ago. It was meant to be a photo of both of us but he is way more photogenic than I……sigh.
