Day 49

I give up trying to figure out the logic of all this... yesterday Little Love was so sore and walking so slowly that she looked about 25 years old.  Then today she is completely sound and actually offering trot in the arena (I was walking, she was trotting next to me).  How can it be so different from one day to another?  Of course, she did have the boots on for the past 24 hours, but still...  I guess it's sort of like any kind of heeling; you have good days and bad days; it's just amazing how big the difference can be between the two. 
It was amazing to see her so alive today; after walking for 20 minutes, I let her loose in the arena.  When she heard Col coming back up the drive, she whinnied and tossed her head and trotted down the long side and I swear she looked almost sound. 

On a completely different note: I gave Becky a riding lesson today.  I don't teach a lot anymore (maybe because I don't ride much either?), but sometimes there are moments when it works out.  Becky isn't a very experienced rider and she hopes to learn how to jump, so doing some seat lessons with me seems like a good start.  She was very receptive to my style of teaching.  I talked a lot about learning theory and how it applies to training horses (negative reinforcement).  We also went through the basics of the biomechanics of the riders seat and how that would affect the horse (both in good and in bad).  It was a lot of information, so it will be interesting to see how it soaks in.  Col definitely was starting to show a whole different kind of shape.  Tomorrow, if the weather is alright, I'm going to try the bitless bridle on him.  Becky travels a lot and she's asked me to ride him sometimes when she's gone, but I don't feel comfortable riding with the bit so we have agreed to try the bitless.  I think Becky is fairly sceptical about it (i.e. she thinks I'm a bit nuts :-)  We'll see...