Open-gate-itis

I don't know what got in to me today, but I managed to leave two gates open! Thankfully, one was into the yard where there is green grass (mmmm!) and the other is to the ring where there are more sprigs of green grass coming up... I just find it crazy that I did them both on the same day.

I rode Rocky today - and we are really great at the trot, doing circles, etc., trotting over a pole no trouble. And at the canter, well, we did about 5 strides 3 or 4 times. But I think Rocky is 1) still not in shape yet and 2) not sure what to think of me being in 2point. It's hard - if I'm lunging him and I get after him to go faster when he's about to break tot he trot, he kicks out/bucks - and I really don't want to ride that! And then the other issue is that when I ask him to go forward by squeezing - if I squeeze harder, he just gets irritated and stops. Squeezing/kicking does NOT make him go faster. That can only be my fault, of course, but now I have to work through it (preferably not at the canter). When I ask him to go into the trot, I squeeze very lightly and cluck to him, but if I kick/squeeze hard, he just stops and says "you can't make me." So when I ask him to canter, I have to do it just so - almost like just letting it happen. If I move around too much squeezing/sitting/asking him to canter with both legs he just gets irritated/confused and stops.

So, rather than me getting irritated, I hopped off and put him on the lunge line to get a canter both directions. He gets winded after cantering a bit, so I got back on him to walk him out - in the field - and opened the gate from the ring to the field before I got back on (Open-gate-itis #1).

After cooling him out and doing another (more) thorough grooming, I noticed a spot of "dirt" near his elbow that I had missed before - and it turned out to be a small scab - which I pulled off to find a dot in the middle where it was deeper - a small puncture. I put him in his stall to get my nolvassan ointment from the truck - and I left the gate to the yard open (open-gate-itis #2). I put some ointment on and let the horses out for the afternoon. As soon as I let the last one out I heard some trotting and looked out the barn window to see that Charlie and Sweetie had found gate #2 open and had gone straight to the green patch in the yard. I managed to out-run Rocky and got there in time to close the gate, and then calmly went and got the two girls back into the field.

This afternoon, Harlan went into our bedroom (where there is another window that overlooks the barn area) and hollered that the whole herd was in the ring (open gate #1) and could I please go get them out before they broke down a bunch of boards. The horses were happily munching on the few sprigs of green grass, not rambunctious at all, so I took a few minutes to set up the barn and brought them in for an early dinner. No harm done - and I got all horses into the barn without having to chase down a single one :).

So, hopefully that is enough excitement for today! But I had a great time riding, and I am going to plan on taking Rocky over for a lesson this week. Hopefully, Kim will be able to give me some ideas about getting Rocky to canter for longer than 5 strides without bucking me off :).