Dressage Goose

Fancy goose!

I took Lucy out the other day after I asked Blake if I could try her in the dressage saddle. She hasn't been doing too much for the past year or so, mostly because she seems to be getting some arthritis in her hips and may be on the verge of a metabolic condition. The girl is almost 19 years old, after all, and was used pretty roughly as a ranch horse before she came to live with us.

I shortened my stirrups a hole, and yikes!

I recently started her on Bute-Less, a supplement product that is supposed to be somewhat anti-inflammatory. She has been feeling a bit better, from what I can tell, although she has dropped quite a bit of muscling and weight in the past year. We had been doing some work outs focusing in building her strength back in her hip area earlier this summer, and then things started to get in the way, and you know how that goes. But she still moves beautifully, and thought she might benefit from a light ride.

Still has a nice butt.

I had to laugh as I tacked her up as my husband watched with this face full of ick and disgust. He would always tell me that his horses are not allowed to go in anything english, but he knew that this could benefit her. Plus, we had to bust out the ugly green bonnet for her, because green is her assigned color and because Blake said so.

Look at that hind end.

Just look at it.

I kept everything pretty brief. She has always been a lazy creature, so staying active in the saddle is a must, especially if she is being ridden without other horses in the arena. I played a little with trying to get her to have some contact, and she figured it out here and there. Her trot is still dreamy, and I wish I could take a dash of it bottled up and pour it onto Bacon's grain. She could use some of that slow moving, floaty trot. She was very reluctant to turn her head to the right, so that was very telling of some poll pain that she is always battling. I asked for a couple of laps of canter too, for funsies, and she reluctantly moved into it. She still did very well and I was very pleased with her! Her turning was not so great in our tiny 50ft square, but most any horse would have issues with that. The other funny part was when I would talk on her, if she heard any word resembling "whoa" she would do her slam on the breaks reining stop. Of course, I was never prepared for the stop.

I hope to continue little rides here and there on her to help keep her moving and maybe build some strength back. She is a sweet girl who is willing to do whatever, albeit slowly and casually. And hopefully we can get her metabolic stuff straightened out as well. But we all learned something. Ranch ponies can do dressage!