The last few weeks have been super hectic, and I’m sorry for not posting recently. Three weeks ago I had a migraine that lasted for about four days, and I didn’t feel comfortable driving to the barn (about a thirty minute drive) by myself. Then the next week began, and it rained almost everyday. I went riding whenever possible, but I wasn’t able to do much since the ground was extremely muddy and covered with puddles. That brings us to this past week. I went out of town for six days for Thanksgiving break. It is because of all these things, that I have not been able to continue to work with Merlin. Luckily, the weather is cleared up a bit this week so I was able to ride a little.

Because it had been a while since I had last seen him, Merlin was a little lazier than normal and we spent most of the first ride getting back into the routine of things. In other words, we just did a lot of trotting and a few circles here and there. Luckily he seemed to have retained the muscle of the exercises fairly well. By the end of the week, he was much more surefooted and alert.

Unfortunately I will be traveling again for the front half of the upcoming week and will not be able to ride. When I get back, I plan on reintroducing ground poles and cantering as well as testing some basic stretches with him. Another thing that I plan to do soon is talk to the barn owner about decreasing the amount of grain Merlin gets since he has constant access to both grass and hay and doesn’t have to fight off other horses to get to it. This should help him to lose a some additional weight.

This week I was very busy with my other extracurricular activities, but I still managed to squeeze a few rides in. While I continued working with him on trotting circles, our focus shifted to trotting over ground poles and to picking up the canter. Merlin seems enjoy the change of pace but he still stumbles over the poles from time to time. Fortunately he slowly became more surefooted as the week went on. As far as cantering goes, he was rather bumpy at first because we had not done it in a while. He was also reluctant to pick it up on the first day but by day two he did so as soon as I asked. While these exercises are great at keeping him engaged and help aid in improving his physique, they are also helping him to improve in his basic skills as well as revealing which of these skills need the most improvement.

Next week I want to continue with the exercises that we have been doing all along (trotting in small circles and over poles), but I really want to make cantering the main focus. While he did pretty well this week, he struggles to pick up the correct lead so I plan to canter him in circles to aid him in figuring out his footing. I also hope to start going over some small jumps in the next week or so.

This week I was able to get up to the barn about four times, and we worked on a lot of things. At the beginning of the week, I really focused on perfecting clockwise circles with Merlin because he tends to be more difficult when riding in that direction (most likely because of his training on the track when he was younger). As the week progressed, he showed great improvement on his clockwise circles, so we moved on and started trotting over ground poles. At first he was very clumsy when going over them, but he eventually started to get the hang of it towards the end of day two. While these exercises are very simple, they seem to help him improve on his motor skills (which he struggled with when I first bought him due to the condition he came to me in). They also help in the basic building of muscles along the flank and topline.

While I have been working with him fairly consistently, his body shape has hardly changed over the last week. This is not necessarily a bad thing though because horses take time to lose weight and build muscle mass in the same way that humans do. If you look closely, you can see that his ribs are starting to show and that his stomach is starting to appear less round, which is perfectly normal for thoroughbreds. This upcoming week I plan to do more work with ground poles with him as well as to reintroduce him to cantering to help him build up his stamina and endurance, to keep him engaged in his training, and to help continue developing and defining his muscles.

Due to the weather this week and the fact that the arena needed time to dry out, I was only able to go to the barn twice this week, so there is not much of a change in Merlin. However, when I was able to ride him I trotted him around the arena as well as in small circles to make sure he was engaging the muscles in his hindquarters. I also was able to trot him up a grassy hill a few times which should help to continue building his topline if I am able to stay consistent. On both days that I was able to ride him, Merlin seemed to start out in a very lazy manner but as the rides progressed he seemed to find his energy and maintain it until we were back in the barn.

Since the arenas should be dry enough to ride in within the next day or so, I am hopeful that we will continue making progress next week. My current goal is to continue trotting in circles and uphills, work on backing up, and to start trotting over ground poles which should all help to strengthen his topline and hindquarters. If all goes well, we may even begin to work on cantering by the end of next week.

This week I focused on building Merlin’s stamina as well as the muscles that make up his topline (the muscles along the top of the spine) by doing lots of trotting in 20 to 30 minute increments on four different occasions. Towards the beginning of the week he was quick to tire and I was lucky to get a twenty minute ride out of him since trotting is the gate that requires the most effort for any horse. However, by the end of the week he was much more willing to move and wouldn’t start to tire out until it was closer to the end of the ride.

This upcoming week I will start to walk him up and down hills in addition to trotting  laps in the ring in order to engage the muscles in his hindquarters and to continue working on building up his topline as well as his stamina.