Fatten Up Please!

Daaaammmn it!!

Fuck all, Tommy is still losing weight! And no one knows why! He doesn't have worms, he's not be excessively worked, the weather is warming up so he doesn't need to burn as many calories to stay warm....
The only thing I could think of, is he's still be "bullied" in his pen. And guess who is right? Me.
It would appear that two of the younger and stupider horses are picking on him. I don't get what it is with big, solid colored horses and what they have against small pintos. So yeah, Magnus and Tucker have been harassing him and I think the stress may be what is causing the weight loss or at least inhibiting the gaining of more.
Fucking Magnus is so stupid too. I get he's only like 5 or 6 and he's really social but he's so ridiculous at the same time, and not the cute ridiculous either.
I was trying to open the gate to lead Tommy in and he was just right in the way and then he was trying to bite Tommy and I was I trying to get him to get the hell out of the way. Eventually I got Tommy in and then when I was trying to leave and lock the gate, who was leaning right against it? Magnus. Trying to escape I bet.

So anyway, once some other girl takes her horse home, Tommy is going in the private pens by the house where he'll be alone and getting grain everyday.
He won't be alone alone, there's other horses in the next pen over, just not in his.

As for the actual ride he did pretty well. Turn-on-the-for hands were okay-ish but need work, he's much better on the hunches, especially turning to the left. We tried some shoulder-in work, but it didn't work very well, instead of staying on the rail we went on a big diagonal across the arena. Still, not bad for the first time we've tried it. Nice transitions down to a walk from the trot and to a halt, as well as back up. From the trot to canter was pretty good, the right seems to be his weaker side because that took more work. But going from a canter to trot both ways wasn't very successful. Not the nice smooth ones we had last week, really bumpy and quick. Though that was probably my fault, I think I was leaning forward instead of sitting down and back into the saddle.
Since it was finally warmer on Sunday we were able to do more canter transitions than usual. That was good, and once he gains more weight, we can do more off. I really hope the snow goes away soon and the sand dries so we can use the outdoor arena again. It's usually more fun, bigger jumps and larger courses!!

Maybe I'll get lucky and have another priceless wipe out again. Quite hilarious, though I don't think anyone else enjoyed it quite as much as I had.
It was last June or so and I was going to do a bit of bare back work with Tommy since the jumps were small. I'd jumped him bareback prior to this, but always inside. Anyway, I'd just thrown my leg over and as I was pulling myself into sitting position, he spooked and cantered off. Needless to say I was a bit surprised, but managed to stay on to try and get him come down to a walk. Then I noticed where he was heading. There was a jump right next to the wooden rail. It was decent sized jump for being bareback, but I didn't want to do it if it wasn't my idea. He was aimed at the gap between the rail and standard that wasn't there. So I bailed and fell on my ass/side, Tommy stopped and turned and looked at me as though he was wondering what the hell I was doing on the ground. He's face was priceless!
Anyway, after he'd calmed down we did some work and he actually did really well and no more spazzes for that day!