Letting go for now...almost

My feet were cold again today when I rode Kaswyn. We had a much better ride than we did on Friday, however.

After walking for five minutes to warm up, I asked Kaswyn to get onto the bit in a lower training level-type frame. Then I asked him to trot, letting him choose the initial pace. He started off at a moderate trot - nothing like the nice working tort he used to have, but a nice pace. Then I just asked him to maintain that frame and pace for three laps in each direction. After about a lap he got lazy and fell onto his forehand, but all I had to do was give him a little leg support and he got back under himself again.

It felt very relaxed and, more importantly, very even. He easily completed the three laps in each direction and felt great the whole time. I spoke with my trainer afterwards to let her know that my riding him upright and pushed forward was making him uneven. She said she didn't think it was important for me to get him into a high frame and a big trot, but thought it was more important that I ride him in a balanced way that made him comfortable. She's going to ride him tomorrow and see how he feels to her.

I did a lot of thinking about Kaswyn and what the future holds for us. I have decided that I can't expect that I'm going to show him this year, or even next year. I can't have any expectations about showing him again period. What I'm going to do is take as much time as we both need and build his body back up. It's going to take as long as it takes, and I can't even guess as to how long that will be. I'm sure some weeks we'll make great progress, and some weeks we'll go backwards. But when he's ready to show again, I'll know. And hopefully at that point I will have a completely fit and healthy horse.

So I'm letting go of Sport Horse Nationals for this year. Well, mostly. I won't cancel those hotel rooms until the deadline for entries passes. I can still hope, right?