More work for Mango and a show as well

Well, I have been a little lazy with blogging Mangos training so will do another catch up.

Over the last week or so I have done alot of ground work with Mango as he is struggling to keep up in behind. He looks like a strong horse but is quite weak in behind. When on the lunge, he starts of well in his trot but gets weaker and weaker after I start to canter him. I have been doing alot of yielding HQ's, small circles opening up into big circles and back to small again, back leg stretches and he has had 2 bowens. Interestingly tho, is that he is the type of horse that even at rest is stamping his hind feet and constantly swishing his tail. I have been getting the feeling that he feels "pinchy" in behind. I know that doesn't quite make sense, but it is the only way I can describe it. After the bowen I gave him last night, the stamping stopped and the tail settled so will be interesting to see what happens. I will give him a couple of days before I do anything with him again. He went to his first show on the 20th and did really well. He looked a million dollars and was so well behaved. He won Champion Standardbred gelding and Champion open hunter horse gelding. Fantastic results for his first show! I was really pleased with him.

Mr Mango comes home. :)

Have a bit of catching up to do as my Internet connection went down last week for the whole week so I was a bit lost lol.

Well, where do I start. Mango had 3 rides over at Sharons before he came home. 2nd ride I did same as the first pretty much. Started online, little bit of yeilding, circles. Then just lent over him before mounting, relaxed him, swung my leg over and just walked him around a bit. 3rd ride I took him to the neighbours place in there nice big arena and we had our first trot. Typical of a Standardbred OTT, no direction, has no idea on what a circle is, does straight lines VERY well, and is generally all over the place lol, but he tries. Took it pretty easy on him tho, just did some gentle trotting. I'm trying to be gentle and not do to much at this stage as I'm not sure how much work the suspensory will handle. He did feel a little proppy at the end of the session so I left him alone for a week before I got back on. 4th ride, again at neighbours, he was great. He is such a trier and so willing. Did a little bit of yielding on the ground and a few circles. He is great with his circles on the ground, especially for a Standardbred. As long as I keep my energy at his rib cage, he stays out. Not doing to much circles or lateral stuff on the ground at this stage, again because of the suspensory. More gentle trotting. He was a good boy. I am a bit worried about his canter tho, as from what I have seen in the paddock it looks like a washing machine canter lol.

Friday the 11th of April I bought Mango home. He settled in very quickly. He is not a horse that fusses about to much at all. Had a little ride and started to ask him to work a little better from behind. He uses his hocks quite well for a Standardbred so that is a good sign. As he is starting to use his hips he is momentarily dropping his head. I'm not putting too much pressure on him at this stage. I finally got his shoes off after a week of trying. Would have been easier to call a farrier of course but that would have been way to easy lol. Well, what a difference it made. He was obviously shod for more effective pacing as he had very heavy shoes on the front and very light ones on the back which would have helped with timing. The next ride I tried out the canter and was pleasantly surprised. With the shoes off it wasn't so bad. After the initial flat out trot, he broke over and it was an ok canter! He can't hold it at all at this stage but thats ok. I don't want to push the canter issue yet, will see how the leg holds up first. All in all I am extremely happy with Mango. He is proving to be just as quiet and sweet as Striker. He will make someone an awesome Halter show horse with his magnificent body and hopefully a great riding horse too.

I will do an update on Envy in the next couple of days as well.