Hunter Pace x2

The second one I've done has come and gone! Friday I went out to make sure that Spyder was groomed and worked on him for a while to help with the shedding. Since it would be 60-70 for the pace, I wanted to make sure that he would be comfortable. I got on to ride on the track, and he was a dream. He did have one weak hind end moment, but we worked on a lot of trotting and backing up to help with that. We did lots of leg yields, and there was no arguing. I had a great feeling about Saturday!

Saturday, I was being picked up by the BO so I got there early to get the grooming/shedding help going. When I got to the ride, I wanted to be able to tack up, warm up, and go. There were 3 trailers from the farm, and that was 9 horses in total. The vet and her assistant came to ride, as well. I let her know that I was worried about Spyder's hind end and she let me know she'd keep an eye out for his movement. She never said anything to me about it, but did give me some things to help with his hind end strength and assured me that her standardbreds are just the same in how they are built which creates the common problem.

We warmed up and had one tripping/locking issue with one fit prior to heading out. Spyder is always looking at folding chairs like they will kill him, but I have no idea what his fit was for. It was by the check-in table so maybe he saw something he didn't like as he was fine with the chair while warming up. We headed out and had a great ride with a few fits on the trails. He gets upset when horses pull ahead and I hold him back yet he hates being in the front. In the back, he's hurry, hurry, hurry, and in the front, he's, "ahh, this is going to kill me" as he looks at everything. Running water gave him a spook, but he did go through all of the water that was left from the rain we had during the week.

At the end of the ride, we had a grand finale of a fall/trip/laying down moment. Spyder was down on all four and I hopped off with a nice, calm dismount. He didn't want to get up at first, but I made sure I checked him out and walked him to see if anything was up. He was perfectly sound, and happy as ever. He hardly had a sweat the whole ride, and I think it was just a fluke. I was happy the vet was there as I mentioned it to her once she finished her ride, but she didn't say much about it and didn't seem worried at all. He didn't drink when I offered him water which made me nervous, but he went right to grazing when I took him to grass. We went back to the water and he drank a decent amount so I sponged him to cool him down and got him on the trailer with hay (which he didn't eat at first - another weird thing). He was back to his happy self stuffing his face after eating carrots and apples that the ride supplied.

I found out today that we won for the regular pace (we skipped the obstacle/game breaks) to enjoy the ride, and I did forget to mention we took a jump over a nice size log. Spyder jumped HUGE and he didn't throw a fit after it (surprise, surprise). Good horse. All in all, it was a really fun day, and we get our ribbons/prize basket from the pony club when they are at the farm tomorrow. I have no idea what's in it, but I do remember seeing treats which Spyder is so well deserving of. I'm off to ride later tonight and hope we can work on strength in the hind end since he got a nice day off yesterday. My finger is STILL hurting from when I broke it (and I still have no intentions on giving up riding for it to heal). Class starts again tomorrow. Meh.