Psych!

As it turned out, the dressage show was NEXT Sunday the ninth,  and we couldn’t enter him.  It was a question of too many young horses at once. We have already entered two big four year old Holsteiners for the show – both of whom are at their first show and both of whom are over 17hh.  On reflection, we decided that trying to cope with Solo on the same day was pushing our luck. It might just have to be a little event that provides the venue for his first competitive under saddle outing.

Cynthia Pyper and David Haddock of Ridge Top Farm in Milton bred Solo.  Last week they came to visit and saw him for the first time since we picked him up. They were very impressed by his size and girth, and how “laid back” he was……He can act with the best of Hollywood!!  “Laid back” is not how I would describe Solo.  He was probably deep in thought planning his next set of ‘discussions’ and ‘opinions’.

The summer weeks are flying by. Solo is enjoying the all night turnout. He goes out at around ten pm to avoid the bugs at dusk and comes in for breakfast the next morning.  He and Waldo are much more ‘broken’ now, and don’t yell and holler so much when we split them up to work them.  Last week they went on their first hack together, they liked that. I don’t hack them with their turnout buddies until they are fairly obedient and paying attention. In my mind, the turnout buddy is the one they play with, and I don’t want any ‘playing’ when I am aboard.

Solo does a lot more work now. He does about an hour of work a day, hacking, hillwork and a little jumping, maybe once every 7-10 days.  He doesn’t really do dressage schools yet as he is still such a big baby physically, but he is becoming smooth and obedient to do the basics on.  It’s only when we are doing new stuff that he feels he has to put in his ten cents worth.

This week will have another easy start for him. Selena and Peanuts are off to the David O’Connor clinic in Orangeville. It’s an invitation only clinic and we are all very excited that they were invited.  They have a jumping lesson on Tuesday and a dressage lesson on Wednesday. I would like to watch both but if I can’t manage Tuesday, I am determined to watch the dressage on Wednesday.  This means that with neither of us here to ride him, Solo will be ponied or lunged for those two days.  The lunging is ok, but the ponying is now like a rest day for him, it’s not mentally or physically challenging any more and he tends to trawl along, bugging the other horse, trying to eat branches and long grass and generally goofing off.  He is a much bigger and more confident horse now and finds hacking sans rider very easy.

It has been really hard to get any photographs recently. Every time I take my beloved camera out to play it has been raining and my precious camera is not allowed to get wet.  I hope I will soon have some photos of big fatty to add to this week’s blog.