Equipment Change

Luckily Cupid's spring fever seems to be going away. He was a good boy the last few rides and hasn't tried running away with me. It's probably a coincidence but Cupid's one win on the racetrack came in the month of March, with thirds in February and April, so it may be possible that he does tend to feel fresh this time of year. Nonetheless we went ahead with an equipment change adding a flash noseband and running martingale, which actually our trainer had suggested a while back before the bolting even began. I was a little disappointed at first because I felt like this was a reflection of my poor riding. Also I like to keep it as simple as possible. But since I've had Cupid he has been a bit fussy with his head, both throwing it up and gaping his mouth open.

We have been keeping our canters very short, and he has been good about coming back to a trot. I am still working on trying to ride off the outside rein, something I never really learned in my past 20 years of riding! Our baby leg yields and shoulders-in are going well at the walk, we still need more work doing it at the trot and also on haunches-in. It is a lot harder trying to control his hind end! Today we did a little canter to the right, and it went pretty well. We changed direction, and Cupid got pretty upset/fussy when I was just trotting in a large circle. I didn't even ask for the canter since he was not relaxed. If I let him trot around the whole arena with a little more rein he was happy, but as soon as I got him on the circle up went the head. I tried to get him to relax but wasn't having much success. So we started trotting around the whole arena again and he was happy. The trainer told me to circle him on the other end, and he was a little edgy but much better. We did a few canter circles at the left on the other end, and called it quits on that. At first I thought it was a pain response, but since one side of the arena (same direction) was a lot worst I'm not sure if it was a mental thing? In any event the vet is coming out tomorrow to give him his vaccines so I'll make sure his teeth are checked as well as a quick check-up on his stifles.