Sunny Saturday Photoshoot

Apollo hasn't had a bath since September. 

Just a little update: after a few rides, I decided that Apollo needs front shoes to be sound and comfortable to ride. He does okay in the deep grass, but he just has too much heel sensitivity to be happy barefoot while working. The farrier is coming out Thursday to put the shoes back on, so no riding until then :( It's a shame, it's BEAUTIFUL out today (as shown in the photos.) He needs to go back to work--he turns into a little booger when he's out of work for too long.

Updates updates updates!

It's been a while.

Apollo officially turned six and after his major tantrum day, he's really starting to grow up and accept his new work load. I still have to remind myself that "When I want to trot, we're going to TROT, and we're not going to go sideways or canter or go like a giraffe." He's better as a result. I'm riding him better--sitting up and back better, W/T/C on a loose rein with no issues, dead quiet. I wish I had video of it! We're jumping a little more now, and at the moment diagonal jumps are our new demon. That just means we have to do them a thousand more times until they're boring. We're also back to behaving on trail rides and hacking out alone. W/T/C with or without a buddy, he behaves himself quite well. Riding in a large group would still be challenging if the others wanted to carry any kind of speed, but we'll get there eventually. We're planning on XC schooling at Plantation soon--I'm taking an XC lesson with my trainer at home before we go though!

A BIG change we've made is we are now 100% barefoot. My farrier pulled the front shoes last Thursday, and he's had some expected tenderness. He's gotten leaps and bounds better every day, and I've been Durasoling him every day to help him along. He's 100% sound on grass, flat packed dirt, barn aisle, etc. He's still a bit sensitive over gravel and rocks, and he's just a little iffy on the rubber arena footing while trotting (walking was fine.) We had our first ride in a week today, and you could DEFINITELY tell it had been a while. He was as distracted as can be, gawking out the windows. Would you believe that other horses LIVE OUTSIDE???? AND WALK AROUND OUT THERE??? I'm as shocked as you are. He really needed a hard work today, but because his feet weren't ready I couldn't really give him the ride he needed. I did trot around the ring a few times, and he was much better behaved at the trot than the walk. Oh well, we did half an hour of walking and we'll be back to regular work in no time.

Enjoy our #transformationtuesday!

Taken a year apart, same pose.