{"id":2488,"date":"2013-04-14T18:41:44","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T23:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/?p=2488"},"modified":"2013-04-14T18:41:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-14T23:41:45","slug":"lucky-star-spring-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/lucky-star-spring-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Star – Spring 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Miracle of Miracles! \u00a0Lucky Star has been impulsive the last three rides we’ve had. \u00a0He’s been impulsive up to the canter. \u00a0I can get Lucky to trail walk, flat foot walk and fox trot without too much arguing. \u00a0We have come a long way. \u00a0However, the canter was not in Lucky Star’s play book.<\/p>\n

On this day, Lucky Star wanted to goooooooo! \u00a0I’m not quite used to this version of Lucky Star yet. \u00a0These past three rides, Lucky seems to always want to go fast the first time we ride on the rail, which conflicts with my normal desire to trail walk on our first steps away from the mounting block.<\/p>\n

Later during our ride when I’m ready to canter, Lucky Star is not. \u00a0The last two rides in an arena, I got him to canter about two-three canter steps both ways of the arena. \u00a0This is always near the end of our training session. \u00a0Once I get three steps of a canter both ways, I leap off and pet him extensively. \u00a0I’m grateful for those three steps.<\/p>\n

I was planning my strategy before this ride. \u00a0I decided to let him go fast when we start our session\u00a0on the rail\u00a0. \u00a0My reasoning is…”I’ll do anything for a canter”.<\/p>\n

I mount and we do our mandatory exercises which consist of backing, side passing, turning on the hind and forequarters. \u00a0We do some figure eight and circle activities. \u00a0Lucky Star and I are ready for the real deal on the rail..<\/p>\n

Lucky Star gets on the rail and expresses a great desire to speed up. His head is up. \u00a0His back is hollowed out. \u00a0He is poised for an off balance take-off. Surprise! \u00a0I let him him speed up. \u00a0We go faster and faster till we get into a RUN. \u00a0I call it a run because there’s no legal name for this gait. \u00a0He’s cantering or galloping but there’s no rhythm. \u00a0Every leg is cantering or galloping, oblivious of the what the other three legs are doing. \u00a0A canter is a three beat gait. \u00a0A gallop is a four beat gait. \u00a0Lucky was not doing either. \u00a0This is a bumpy gait which leaves the human body guessing at where the suspension is coming next. \u00a0My human body loves rythym because I can balance and stay in the saddle. \u00a0My human body is starting to fear this helter-skelter bumpy run. \u00a0I signal Lucky Star to slow down. \u00a0He ignores me. \u00a0Usually, Lucky slows down to a sudden unasked stop \u00a0when I’m enjoying going forward. \u00a0Did you ever learn to drive a clutch vehicle? \u00a0You start to let the clutch out; The vehicle speeds forward; You let the clutch out all the way; \u00a0The clutch hates that and stalls the vehicle to a sudden stop. That’s what riding the normal Lucky Star is like. \u00a0This is not the normal Lucky Star. \u00a0It’s more like an out of control 1952 one ton truck where the accelerator is stuck and you are traveling down a bumpy gravel road.<\/p>\n

Lucky Star was on a high headed, hollow back mission. \u00a0I convinced him to slow down to a stop and we did this very same act two more times. \u00a0Yee Haw!<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of rocket three, I went back to my normal plans. \u00a0At the end of our session, I ask him to canter and he did. \u00a0Going to the left, he cantered about 10 steps before his legs got confused and we lapsed into our non-canter run. \u00a0I leaped off, petted him, treated him and we finished the session with a long grazing session..part of it in a tire!<\/p>\n

Lucky Star is a character! \u00a0I love him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miracle of Miracles! \u00a0Lucky Star has been impulsive the last three rides we’ve had. \u00a0He’s been impulsive up to the canter. \u00a0I can get Lucky to trail walk, flat foot walk and fox trot without too much arguing. \u00a0We have come a long way. \u00a0However, the canter was not in Lucky Star’s play book. On this day, Lucky Star wanted to goooooooo! \u00a0I’m not quite used to this version of Lucky Star yet. \u00a0These past three rides, Lucky seems to always want to go fast the first time we ride…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-country-franks-lucky-star","category-missouri-fox-trotter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2488"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2514,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions\/2514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}