What's Up Wednesday

 

It was a pretty low key week around here. We're just puttering around as we tend to do this time of year. The weather is up and down. Mornings are pretty cold, low 50's and then afternoons are pretty nice. Thankfully this week we're heading up to the 80's again, and I'm here for that! Hope it sticks around for a bit. 

Shiny's kiddo was only able to come out once last week, so I actually got to jump Shine on Thursday. I like to keep them to just two days of jumping per week so I haven't jumped her in quite a few weeks. It was fun! Look how cute she jumped:

I was concerned the last couple of weeks because she's been kicking out a lot for the canter transitions. And now that I've started this story, I think I might have already told you guys this... But I let her have a free lunge Wednesday and the kicking out has mostly disappeared. So I'm feeling confident she was just trying to tell me she needed a little run and buck. 

Eros has graduated to jumping mini courses. And by that I mean three or four jumps strung together set just below 2'. We do a couple warm up jumps then one mini course. I'll probably keep him at that for a few weeks before we add more. Baby steps! He's feeling good though and is definitely excited to jump again!

He's also been wearing his Contago version of the EquiBand twice a week. I'm just using the belly strap on him right now, and it's making a big difference.

Though I do think the band could be farther back. Maybe I just need to shift the pad back a little. It's doing the job though, so I guess it doesn't matter too much. I like this pad a lot more than the equiband pad. It's softer, and it has ceramic fibers in it, similar to Back on Track. Also, it's not a bizarro shape so it actually fits the saddle fairly well. 

Al is feeling much better the last week or so after his abscess debacle. I let him pop over a few tiny jumps last week too. He's definitely distracted this time of year with the leaves changing color and all the wind... But things are mostly going fine. I haven't felt super comfortable jumping him by myself, so we're just plugging along, keeping the jumps tiny, and trying to refill that confidence bank. 

It really doesn't matter how big we jump. I just want to get to where we are having fun and enjoying each other. The rest will fall into place. 

And that's really about it from here. We're just doing the things, a little at a time. Enjoying the rest of summer and start of fall.