We did not have a dressage lesson in July. Sniffle.
Mr. E. has made it clear that he wants to see Rodney in a better ring. He has a point. Our riding space is small and often slippy.
What is not clear is how we will haul Rodney to another barn. When we took him to Stepping Stone for proof of concept [Recap], he had trouble wedging his enormous self into the standard space in our slantload. We knew it would not work for long rides, say to the AEC, but we thought it would be okay to go around the corner.
Not so much.
Over was fine, once we got him stuffed in. When we got home, he was covered with sweat and had torn the side matting. The theory is that he didn’t have enough space to brace himself.
Second try. We removed the partition to give him more room. Essentially turned the space into a stock trailer. I’ve shipped dozens of horses in stock trailers. They usually prefer it to regular trailers.
Rodney, not so much.
First, he was reluctant to load. A sign of having had a bad ride previously. Once we got him on and secured, something happened. We don’t know what. He freaked, broke loose, and crashed into the butt bar. He blew up his ankle and sprained his ass.
We probably need a Warmblood-sized trailer. I don’t want to buy a trailer for a pasture ornament. He can’t become more than a pasture ornament until we have a trailer to take him places.
Catch-22.
Update, Rodney’s brief dressage career
Rodney’s Dressage Lesson March
Rodney’s Dressage May 2017
Dressage June 2017: We Leg Yield, Who Knew?
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 