I rode all three horses today - it was a beautiful day in the 50sF with almost no wind and we're supposed to have a lot of rain starting tonight. Dawn and I continued her lateral work at the walk; she was great - focussed and responsive. She's getting a trim tomorrow, and assuming she doesn't have any soreness from that, we should be back to trotting shortly.
Drifter continued to show me how good he's feeling by trying on some stuff on the ground - there was one attempt to nip and some pawing while I was asking him to back in hand (both of which got immediate corrections), but we worked through it. Our goal today was to work over some poles to strengthen his hind end and also have him really lengthen the walk, and if he felt very good, to try a bit of trot in short, straight sections. We did all of that - and when I asked him to trot there was no resistance or balking, which I also take to mean that he's feeling good again. And the trot was pretty good too - he was a bit tentative at first but there was no unsoundness.
Pie did well too - we had the same exercise agenda as Drifter, but I wasn't going to trot him yet. Before I got on, we did the turning test and this time he crossed over a little bit immediately in both directions, which is a big improvement even over yesterday. And he was able to back straight under saddle without a lot of support with my left leg, which was also a big improvement. After our short session of arena work, we took a little trail excursion, which he seemed to enjoy.
Drifter and Pie are getting trims tomorrow, too - I had deferred that for a week to allow them to complete their Oroquin-10 treatment. Pie particularly had a lot of trouble holding his feet up for the farrier last time, and it'll be interesting to see how they both do this time.
I'm encouraged . . .
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