It Was a Good Ride...

The title says it all. Last night, was a good ride.
The Pickle, is the slowest eating horse I have ever met in my entire life. When I got there last night, they were just in the process of bringing them in for dinner so I decided to grab him and bring him in before I got changed...NOTE - be prepared for the barrage of comments/insults when you go out to collect your horse in a suit and flip-flops...and YES I know I should not be around horses in flip-flops and YES I know it is a bad example for the kiddies.
45 freaking minutes later.....
As I am grooming him, I notice a lump on his lower left side, sort of by his sheath....it is a little warm and it is ouchie when I touch it...GREAT...I swear if anything, Pickle's UFP has made me so much more aware to everything that is going on with his body that the smallest little bump, scrape, I freak out about. So much for being low maintenance. I turn him out into the arena and phew, he isn't off at all.
Since he had the lucky opportunity of being off for 3 days, it was back onto the trails for him. I was expecting the giraffe neck, not paying attention to anything, spooking at rocks, trees, grass, the sky etc, and a lot of tourism from him. He was anything but. I think he is really starting to understand what it means to pay attention and when he does pay attention, it means I don't constantly have to remind him to pay attention with a half-halt every 4 seconds. We went up and down the loooong straight away 6 times, on a longer rein, at a steady trot...not the let's trot as fast as I can and not pay attention so I fall on my face trot...balanced, with me staying off his face...it was great. Yes, he had his head UP, but his ears were pricked, he was looking forward and snorting to himself....I praised him the ENTIRE way.
Head over to the dreaded Hill...and in doing so we come across the scary horse-eating-monster-infested water. He looked at it, didn't want to go through it the first time, I said enough is enough and then he proceeded to walk straight through as if he had been doing it his entire life. Head out at a trot and head up the hill...maintaining the same, BIG but balanced trot. Chester looked straight up in front of him the entire time and had no interest in anything that he wasn't supposed to be doing. I was very proud. Trot down, in balance, I could feel his feet coming up and under him from behind...it was great! Get back to the water and he walks right through, first time, no funny business.
We walked back to the barn on the buckle with his neck stretched out and head down...snorting to himself the entire time. I love my horse.
The 'Pickle' was out again when I dismounted and it stayed that way while I was untacking him. I am very pleased with how far he has come. There is still the clicking/popping as he catches his tendons through his patella, but it isn't nearly as often or severe. But know we still have a long long long lonnnggggg way to go before I ask him to collect more or even jump anything.
DVM Extraordinaire comes tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. Things up for discussion include: acupuncture and glucosamine.
Bromont starts tomorrow...and it is hard for me knowing that instead of being a year away from going, I am now at least two...sigh...