We’ve reached the point of Spring in the Midwest where all it does is rain and the pastures are saturated, and complete mud pits. While I’m definitely grateful for the warmer temperatures, Miles isn’t happy being stuck inside so much. Less turnout means more energy and Miles doesn’t always use his enthusiasm for good.

Last week I lunged in the Pessoa rig and Miles tossed his head around and crow hopped, so he got to canter extra laps. A few days later I hopped on for a flat school and as soon as I mounted up, I knew he was up. I let him walk around and waited for the ring to clear out a bit, in hopes that a calmer atmosphere would help him settle down. But as soon as I picked up a trot, he flung his head around and humped his back… so I stopped and got off. I’m really all about self-preservation right now — I really don’t want to hit the dirt. So I threw him on the lunge line and he was wild.

I’m talking full-out galloping, huge bucks and just general shenanigans for about 20 minutes straight. So we went around and around, both directions — Big Red isn’t flabby, he’s been in light work all winter and the Pessoa keeps him in pretty good shape… but he’s not summer show season fit. So after 30 minutes of lunging he was pooped. I got back on, just to prove to myself that I could and that he’d behave, and we politely did a tiny bit of w/t/c in each direction. The next day I wanted to do a short long and low hack to make sure he felt okay and loosen him up. He was still pretty forward (for Miles, in the indoor, anyways), but was pretty well-behaved with no threats of dolphin leaping.

Yesterday Miles worked for the third day in a row (he was NOT happy about it), but we got to ride outside and he was really, really good. I switched my whip to a shorter crop, which helped somewhat with his zoomies and anticipating upward transitions. Of course, the weather forecast continues to call for rain all week and I’m going out of town over the weekend… so I’ll probably have to repeat the entire series of rides next week. But at least he feels good!

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