If there's one thing Tonka and I don't do, it's lope. I thought it was my fault we were having trouble until I asked him for a lope on the lunge line today. Not good. He was uncoordinated, didn't want to do it and was very stressed about it. So I took him to the round pen. It took a while but he finally got a good lope going without crossfiring. Then I got on and we did it under saddle. That also took a while but we did get it done. Not a full lap around the round pen, but hey, he did it and I was proud of him and we were both hot so I put him away. I'm hoping to work on it again tonight.
He's not totally sound in the front end, I suspect because he toes in, so I wonder if it's even right to ask him to do this kind of stuff. Hard work on hard ground in a circle... But I really want to graduate out of the walk-trot class for Mustang Days. I hope I'm not doing the wrong thing. I feel like he needs to know how to lope under saddle comfortably, even if we don't do it often. I think I'll keep at it and get him going in straight lines as soon as I can. He also needs a trim. Hopefully he'll lose his head-bob after I get those hooves touched up.
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3 comments:
In addition to the front end issues, could he have some sort of muscular or joint hind end pain (or back)? That can make it hard for a horse to lope.
Loved your pictures of Zaz - he is coming along!
My filly, Cia, couldn't lope without falling when I first got her. My farrier has done some work to balance her out and now she lopes fine--but if she goes a long time in between trims, it gets bad again.
He might also just need more practice loping if he doesn't travel at that gait in the pasture even.
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