Corny Conditioning Clinic: Day 1

Enthusiasm from the portly prime participant was decidedly lackluster

Yesterday we began Corny's long journey from fat to fit.  He went down to work in the arena not once, but twice.  These photos are from his very first session that was early in the morning.  As out of condition and overweight as he is, I don't want to overdo it things at first.  I'm timing these first workouts at 20 minutes apiece and, even then, not asking our hefty boy to do too much.

When we first brought him down to the arena, I started off by just letting him just run around for a few minutes.  He started out all spanky and full of snort and prance but this quickly drained away after a couple of turns around the arena. 

 

 Within minutes, he was huffing and puffing and planted himself in a corner, hoping to be haltered and led back up to his pen for his breakfast.





Instead, he was haltered and lunged, first at a walk and then a trot.  Again, he started out with energy...



...but soon became winded and wanted to stop and had to be sternly told to keep those legs moving.  He had a little bit of "attitude," but all in all tried his best.  The poor guy has no stamina because he's spent the entire summer eating and taking long naps under the oak trees.  That's my fault.




















It didn't help Corny's morale that he had a fascinated audience loafing around the arena giving him useless fitness advice.

We did our best to ignore them all and just keep going for that whole looooong twenty minutes. 











When it was all over, Corny got a well-deserved hosing off to wash off his twenty minutes of sweat.  He needed it!  He loves it when I let the cool water dribble behind his ears.  His head sinks lower and lower.  Silly boy!


He then got his meager breakfast of a half flake of hay.  Later that afternoon I actually saddled up and rode him for another twenty minutes in the arena.  I think we can safely assume that Corny slept well that night.

I'm thinking that I'll post weekly updates on how Corny is doing on his diet.  That should help keep me motivated.  I must admit that, after riding Corny yesterday for the first time in many months, I'm very saddle sore today.  He's become so broad that wrapping my legs around him is like sitting astride an overstuffed sofa.  Another reason to trim down.