What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't really have tons to report on this week. I feel like we're starting to find our work groove at the new place, and that is nice to me. I like feeling settled and like we're being productive. We're limited a little in what we can do in the small indoor, but honestly, it's winter. Time to ease off and re visit the basics, ya know? Work on fitness and some of the little things that we sometimes let slide. 

We got some of our maintenance done this week. The farrier came Friday and then the bodyworker was here on Monday. And Eros removed one of his brand new shoes on Monday... Lol. Fortunately, he just kind of stepped out of it, no damage to his hoof and didn't even bend the shoe. So it went right back on the next day. (Thanks to my wonderful farrier and his super team.) 

The field where the shoe was deposited...

Some notes from the bodyworker. Shiny's in great shape. The only interesting thing to note was that normally she needs the most work on her left side, and this time it was on the right. So that was different. Nothing major, just some small, pretty "normal" stuff. Al is showing some weakness behind, which I'm not surprised by. He's been locking up more in his stifles lately. I'll probably schedule a vet visit for after the holidays for him. I think I know exactly what he needs, but we'll see what doc says. I'm not terribly concerned and neither was our body worker. Just something to keep an eye on and address. Eros didn't have anything really out of the ordinary other than being a little stiff on his left hind. He pulled the right front shoe though, and I have a feeling that was the result of some silly antics out in his field. So likely that stiffness is related to that. He's felt fine the last two days so I'm not too concerned. 

Anyway, let's summarize the week in ponies shall we? I didn't really do a second jump day last week. We popped over some rails and cavalletti that someone else had set on Saturday, and I counted that as day two of jumping. Shiny and Eros were great for that stuff, but Al was also great! He was pretty angsty and annoying much of last week in the indoor. But Saturday the barn was a little busier and we got to ride with two other horses which made Al really happy. He likes buddies. It was definitely the best ride of the week for him. 

Did I mention the wind? It's always windy.

Sunday, by some miracle, was dry and relatively warm. So we finally got to ride outside! Al didn't really do much riding if we're being honest. He did most of his real exercise on the lunge line, and then I got on and just walked him on a loose rein for twenty minutes. I think he appreciates a zero pressure ride now and then. And Sunday Funday is the perfect day for that! 

Eros did his Sunday funday easy ride in the outdoor ring too, and then I walked him out around the paddocks twice. I think he even enjoyed it! Maybe some day he'll be a hack horse. Maybe. 

Shiny has the best day ever because she went wandering in the fields. But after she pulled the reins through my hands for the second time to snag a mouthful of grass that she's not suppose to have, I made her do a little work in the grass ring. She might not admit it, but she thought that was fun. 

Monday is their day off, but the body worker came, so they did that. Then yesterday was just a flat day for everyone. Al was pretty good, but a little angsty about the doors at the end of the ring. It was windy though and they were making some noises so I don't blame him really. Eros hasn't been thrilled at the far end either, so you KNOW it must be creepy down there. Anyway, once I just made the ring a little smaller I was able to get his attention and had a pretty nice ride. Eros and Shiny both had nice Tuesday rides. Mostly just stretchy, loose work and a quick touch on coming together to make sure all the buttons were working. 

Today was sort of a jump day. Sort of. We are having weather today. Not snow thankfully, but WEATHER. First, it was 60 degrees all day which is nuts since it's been in the 30's and low 40's only. But also really high winds (gusts to 50mph) and lots of rain. I was supposed to go to the theater tonight, but when they started closing schools early and the town hall closed up I opted out. It's a 45 minute drive on a nice night, and this certainly wasn't a nice night. Anyway, it also wasn't a nice day. One of the down sides here at the new farm is that I have to set up whatever I want to jump each time I want to do that, and then put it all away after. (In the indoorthat is. There are jumps outside set up all the time and you can do whatever you want and leave it out there.) It's not at all unreasonable, but I definitely get a little lazy about what I set up. I really wasn't sure how the boys would be with the sounds happening from the weather, so I didn't want to get too crazy dragging out standards and what not when we might only manage raised cavalletti level attention spans. So that's exactly what I chose to set up! That and some flower boxes. Eros does not at all understand the question when I ask him to walk or trot over a flower box by itself. Completely mind blowing for him. He does figure it out eventually, but it's quite shocking because he's normally the sensible smart one. Anyway, here's what I set up for today:

Nothing too strenuous, but enough for them to need to pay some attention to something other than the outside weather. 

Al really surprised me today. He could have really come undone, but he didn't. Was he perfect? No, definitely not. Did we get to the point where we could just canter around and around over all the things? Also no. But what he did do, was let me get his attention back when I lost it. I feel like I had a mostly relaxed horse for the majority of the ride. I was not expecting that. I think it helps that it was so warm out, but whatever the reason, I'm thrilled with his efforts today. I really wish I could pretend like this is because he's moving in the right direction rather than a one off. But I know it's not. It doesn't matter though. I can absolutely appreciate the better than anticipated ride. And I will! Here are some terrible screen shots from our ride today. (And yes, he puts forth the least amount of effort possible whenever possible.) 

The farthest strip of lights is a little finicky and if you don't press it just right they sometimes turn off. Which happened today so our media is dark. What can ya do? I just propped my phone up against the wall, but maybe one of these days I'll bring Pivo out. The footage isn't at all exciting, but it's really useful for me to see what it looks like from the outside. 

I didn't film Eros today. I wanted to make sure I had enough phone juice for Shiny since I figured she'd be the most agreeable and I didn't plan ahead and bring my phone charger. But he was pretty good. Definitely excited about "jumps" but who can blame him? I get excited too! It's a little tricky in this ring because there's not a lot of room for his exuberant 20' stride. So I've been a lot of cantering a jump, trotting the next, that sort of thing. We had fun! 

Shiny cares zero about outside noises and weather, so she was the most fun today. I did some funny bending lines with her, and was just able to keep popping over stuff. She was great! She feels a lot better after her body work. 

I will definitely need to bring some standards out and make some bigger jumps for her. Or maybe just stand the blocks up the other way. I think that's 2' when you do that. She's definitely finding these little things boring. They all are honestly. For Eros, I kind of want to keep the height teeny in this ring because I don't want him careening around the corners at high rates of speed. That's how he gets broken. And the bigger the fence the more he might torpedo given his current level of exuberance. For Al, it's tricky. I want to start with these little things, and then as it gets easier and smoother start to lift them up some. The height and the jumps themselves aren't the issue for Al, it's whatever he's staring at on the other side. So I like to practice first in a situation where we can't get into too much trouble (small jumps) and once that's smoothed out we can go bigger. Be nice to have a ground person for that so I don't have to get off and on a bunch, but there's not often people around when I ride Al. We'll figure it out when the time comes though. 

And that's it for this week! I shall leave you with the most adorable photo of Rita sitting on her butt begging for her cookie.

And yes, that is one of her two mountains of toys next to her. 
It's out of control.