Where did the week go? Oh, I know, website work and subtitling work swallowed it.

Almost time for a new lesson, so just some shorter musings on last week. Which can be summed up as very good, as Murphy and I put what weeks of counter-cantering had taught us to work on some regular cantering.

It started out a little nervously, though, as I found a small cut on his right back hoof. It turned out to be a scab on top of his old scar, from when his hoof was (somehow) almost split into two parts. He has a lot of scar tissue there, and needs a specially-shaped shoe, but otherwise it doesn’t seem to bother him. Ulrika didn’t think the cut would affect him, so we gave it a try. I think that during the lesson he was possibly a tiny bit less willing to use his right side correctly (he’s always pretty uneven, but it may have been a touch more than usual), but she couldn’t see anything from the ground.

There was certainly nothing wrong with his canter. Much of it was just a notch or two over regular Murphy-standard, but on two occasions I got some lovely lift. The second time I tried to point this out to Ulrika ... and it promptly fell apart. She noted that it seems clear I just can’t talk and ride at the same time, at least not when me and/or the horse is doing much better than usual.