Houston, GO for Launch!

For the past couple of months I've been trying to figure out Serenity's issue with not having a forward mentality. All she wanted to do while I was riding her was to walk. A very slow plodding walk at that. I know she has a very nice forward, active walk. But, she wasn't doing this nice forward walk. I might get a couple of trot steps when asked, but then she'd go back down to that slow walk.

Was it saddle fit? Was she in pain somewhere? Did she hate her Easyboots?

I fiddled with saddle pads, taking one off, adding one on. Changed saddle position, forward and back. I checked her back for pain after every ride. No hint, there. I took off her easyboots, she was okay on the dirt road but couldn't walk on the gravel portions. Put the easyboots back on. I found a used Wintec saddle on EBay for a good deal. It's much lighter than my American Flex saddle. And while I didn't see any soreness from that saddle, I thought I'd take a chance and try this saddle. It fit pretty good, but it's a little wide, so I added the extra pad. Perfect fit now. But, I still don't know if that was the cause.

In 30 years I've never needed spurs. But, I bought some for Serenity. I know she's lazy by nature. It was a way to see if she's being lazy or if she really does have some issues that I'm not finding. Today, Serenity found her trot! She's just plain lazy. Go figure...

She is now volunteering trot! Was it the combination of a better fitting saddle and me not putting up with her laziness or just laziness? I'll probably never know. But I'm so Happy that she now has a GO button!

Trotting and One Sided-ness

Yesterday I finally trotted Serenity for an extended amount of time. Long enough to figure out that she is REALLY ONE SIDED. I believe I know the cause, now to fix the problem.

I believe I'll lunge her after riding her, starting with 5 mins on each side. I would love for this to be fixed while out on the trail, but haven't found a blog/website that describes what exercises I can do while out there. I do know that lunging builds muscle and balance if done correctly. So, I suppose, I'll have to  use lunging.

In the meantime, I'll count sits on each diagonal. And change the diagonal that I sit on EVENLY.