I love my horse.

Soon had the whole week off, and with some construction going on in the turnout areas all week, I'm not sure he's getting a full day of turnout either.  No matter, because I hopped on him tonight and he was the same, laid back sleepy boy as always.  Even with the wind whipping around outside, horses in different paddocks creating a stir, horses lunging in one end of the arena, and MASSIVE CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES creating a mess just on the other side of the indoor arena wall, Soon was a total rock.  It literally had no effect on him.  He wanted to nap.  :)

We had a great flat school, focusing more on forward from behind.  It's a work in progress, but I felt like we made some at the walk and some at the trot.  And it is so nice to be more confident on that right lead canter depart!!  He picked it up on the third try, with the second try also being correct, but he once again fell back into the trot, because I didn't have enough leg.  But again, I still praised him, and telling him he did great by picking up that lead really seems to sink in with him, and he's picked it right up afterward fairly consistently the last couple of rides.  Tomorrow I'll try the left lead canter first, to boost his confidence and give him the official "hey we're cantering now" nod.  I think maybe he'll pick up the right lead quicker and be even more confident.  We'll see!

After a nice cuddle session I gave him his first dose of his Omeprazole ulcer meds.  Many horses coming off the track (many performance horses in general) have ulcers to some degree.  I decided to buy some and give it a week trial to see if there is any difference.  He had dropped some weight at the end of Aug, but that was probably due to the heat, ridiculous bugs, and not immediately upping his grain ration when I started him in work.  His weight looks good now, but I figured a week on the
Omeprazole wouldn't hurt.  If it has positive results, I'll keep him on it for the month, which should clear anything up.  He's not a fan of pastes, but after some of his favorite horse cookies and a nice hand graze (on what grass is left on the property...), he seemed like he was pretty content.  He is such a love.