Red is Better, and Anatomy of a "Pieshy"

Today I finally felt well enough to work all three horses.  Dawn and I had a very nice work session in the early morning - she's still adjusting to my daughter having come and gone, so I got very little nose resting, but she worked very well for me.

I've ridden Red at the walk for four days - we were up to 20 minutes of walk work - so today I put him on the lunge to see how he was doing.  Good news - things are getting better - his trot to the left was sound and the trot to the right was very close - he's clearly on the mend.  So for the next three days, we'll be adding time to our walking.  Then I'll put him on the lunge again and see if we're ready for any trot work.

Both Red and Pie thought there was something scary out in the pastures visible through the south arena door - our arena is somewhat scary anyway, as it has no fewer than five doors where things can be seen or horses or people are coming and going.  I never did figure out what either of them were looking at - something far in the distance.

And, as a result, I can give a good description of a "Pieshy" - thanks to Jean for the coinage.  When Pie sees a scary thing to the right, say - usually something really odd or a moving object - he stops his forward motion, bends to the right - towards the scary thing - dropping his right shoulder and in fact his whole front end while moving rapidly to the inside - essentially a "stop, drop and fade".  When it happens suddenly, unless your seat is already firmly in the saddle and your legs underneath you, you're likely to be airborne, due to the drop or fade or both.  I've been caught twice, perhaps if I'm lucky now I've learned . . .