Levi's 5th Birthday

Happy birthday to Levi, who turned five years old yesterday. Levi had quite a milestone year, and I don't think we could top last year's birthday. After all, he can only be hitched to cart for the first time once. Still, we kept this year's event challenging, with a good drive to demonstrate our progress and a little party at the barn afterward to celebrate and reminisce. We even had a little group of onlookers during our workout this time, and Levi wasn't fazed.

For the past month we have steadily focused on increasing the number of week days for under-cart conditioning, with drives of 25-45 minutes in duration completed mostly outdoors. My goal has been to drive him four days per week, with one full rest day for turnout only, and sometimes two depending on how he's doing, one hour-long workout for conditioning in hand (which is usually working over ground poles at a trot and canter on a lunge line), and one long-lining workout in the outdoor arena, also mostly at a trot. The goal of this current program is to steadily build aerobic fitness and strength for driving, without stressing him too much or increasing the workload too quickly. As always, he also receives a full day of turnout where he does get quite a bit of movement in a very spacious paddock, and is never worked without being fed beforehand or receiving at least an hour of turnout time. We moved yesterday's drive to the indoor arena; I had intended to do a long walk out on farm roads, but changed our focus due to wet footing. This drive was difficult for him, since he'd had a full week of driving already and was due a rest day, but he bravely put in a great effort. We did a lot of longer trotting sessions in between shorter walking breaks, and I had to use lots of encouragement to help him keep his tempo and not break back down into a walk. I also used this workout to remind him to stay on his outside rein and stay straight through turns. These early tempo-building workouts will be important going forward. At the end of every workout I always signal to him that it is time to warm down and stretch by letting him relax and walk with incrementally less and less contact until we are at a full stop and ready to unhitch. At this point, while I do want him to use his body correctly and work more over his back, with less effort of movement from the forehand, he first needs to be strong enough to hold that kind of frame. Keeping a steady tempo will help build that strength, which will in turn make it easier for him to relax more going into his upward transitions.

I've carefully and incrementally increased the amount of time he spends at a trot, mostly along straightaways, with lots of walking breaks in between. I am not as concerned with his trotting speed but mainly see to it that he doesn't break his tempo; if he decides to set his own tempo, I'll hold him to that, and he's learning to work more efficiently at a trot. Trot work in sand, while pulling a cart, is pretty hard work for a horse just starting to condition, and I fully appreciate this difficulty. I keep the total time for these workouts rather short, at up to 30 minutes, and we often focus mostly on transitions while gradually lengthening the total distance and time spent in the trot relative to walk or halt. Sneaky ways to build fitness!

After our drive, Levi, Joe, and I celebrated with some friends at the barn. I counted ten people including us in attendance at the party. You know you have found a great group of people when they respond as enthusiastically to an invite to a horse's birthday party as they would if it were for a five year old child. I don't think I've ever had ten people at my birthday party, at any point in my life! It doesn't surprise me that Levi is so popular. He has always had the ability to attract a crowd of people who became fast friends. I'm curious and intrigued by what the future holds for this year. I think he's doing splendidly, and I'm very proud of him and how far he has come.