Leighton Farm is quite busy on the weekends – especially when the weather is nice. Luicci eats up all the attention from visitors. He uses his adorable ears and personality to attract them to his stall where he proceeds to ham it up and engage them. Here he entertains Lauren Pennell. He gave her a kiss and this was the aftermath. I think there is a show horse in there – at the very least a show off!
At this point we are hacking him around the arena when the footing cross country is greasy – from rains – and hacking cross country whenever possible. The undulating ground serves to loosen him up and build up the muscles he needs to begin his training as a riding horse.
Racehorses brace their bodies because straight is faster. They are not laterally supple. When they come here, we do a lot of suppling and one of the many advantages of hacking out is that it supples the horse just by the nature of the surface. He has to let go in his body to accomodate the footing. We will be doing a lot of power walking which builds up the top line and when done correctly, produces a free moving and relaxed horse.
