Training Journal
If you’re riding a horse, you’ve already won.
I talked about Rodney last week [Holiday Rides]. What of Milton? He’s been doing great.
Groundwork
Milton has become quite the long-line star. He’s doing enough work that he’s starting to put on weight somewhere other than his hay belly. There might be a topline in there somewhere.
Future Driving Practice
Milton likes to drive. It’s hitching that upsets him. To address this, we have broken the process down to into tiny increments. First step, stand between the shafts. That’s it. Nothing connected. Just stand while someone rolls up the cart and holds it in place. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
We had a chance to practice often during the holidays. Milton is up to three minutes without shifting. His eyelids have been know to drift semi-shut on occasion.
Will he ever drive? Will he ever compete? No idea. My driver says that if Milton only pulls a cart around the ring at Stepping Stone Farm that will be fine. Between me as the worrywart and Coach Courtney as the supervisor, we won’t do anything that puts horse or human in jeopardy.
Pasture Walks
Milton participated in several holiday trail walks around the pasture [Team Ride]. One of the days, we ended early because Rodney was too wound-up to focus. We did enough to declare victory and stopped. Milton’s stood quietly, walked calmly, and mostly wondered, ‘What’s up with him?’ Good boy.
Riding
I even hopped on for a short stroll around the side field during a trip to SSF.
Where is all of this going? No idea. We’ll keep moving forward and see where we get.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
👍
🙂