What's Up Wednesday

 

Guys! It was legit spring here today. It was in the low 60's, the sun was out, and it wasn't windy! This may never happen again. It must be celebrated! 

I don't have a ton to report on this week really. We're just plugging away, working on our fitness. The transition outside made our lack of fitness VERY apparent these past couple of weeks. I've mentioned that the footing is a bit deeper outside, but also the ring has quite a grade to it. You can really feel the horses working when it's time to climb the hills. It's good for them though. They'll be in great shape in another week or two. They're already doing better out there. 

Al has jumped out there a bunch of times now. And today he was SO great! The biggest jump was 2'6", and the rest were all tiny, but the point is, he just went around doing what I asked when I asked. It was LOVELY. I would have put a few more jumps up a little bit, but there was a dressage lesson starting and I didn't want to be disruptive. It's really nice to end a ride on Al wanting to do more though. For the longest time I really couldn't wait to get done with our rides. This is a big change, and I really REALLY hope we stay on this path. It's making me excited to think about showing. And I'm remembering why this horse is so special. Because I really was starting to question that for a long time. 

Also, look at this:

Al was on the crossties while his stall was getting cleaned, and this adorable little horse was using Al's butt as a pillow. Al just let him. That's who he is. Any attention from another horse is good attention to Al. Today I caught them in a similar situation, but the gray horse just kept biting Al's butt. And Al stood there and let him. He's such a weirdo. An endearing weirdo. 

Shiny is doing well too! I forget if I mentioned she'd started coughing a little bit when we started with her one ration of dry hay per day. I haven't heard her cough in a few days now, so I'm hoping whatever that was she's worked through. She didn't have any nasal discharge, nor fever. It was a dry cough. I very much think it was some kind of allergy. Aside from that, she's been good to ride as that's who she is. But still SO LAZY. I really have to be pretty mean to her to get her moving. Which I don't love. I've been ending her rides each day with a walk out on the property and that's definitely her favorite part of the day. Today she tried to drag me out onto one of the trails, but the footing was a little too soft so I had to say no for today. We'll explore that another time though. It's really fun having access to all these places to ride AND having a mount that enjoys it too. Maybe this will be the year I actually take her on some of the trails near my house. (The parking lots are so tiny though... Have I mentioned I hate turning my trailer around in tight spaces?) 

I jumped her over a few fences outside today too, and though it took a bit for her to get excited about it, she finished off really nicely. I'm so grateful to have this pony. She's just game for absolutely anything. 

Eros... hahaha. I love him. He's perfect in almost every way. So today, I thought, I'll let him play over the little cross rails in the ring too. It's a beautiful day, and he's feeling good. Hahaha... He started out so nicely over the first two. We trotted those. And then I cantered the smaller one away from the barn. All good. But then I turned back to the other X heading toward the barn. He turned those turbo boosters up to full throttle! It's naughty, yes. But there's no mean spirit involved from him, he's just having SO MUCH FUN! I let him have his little victory gallop on the straightaway, but did have to shut it down before the turn since he's a delicate flower. And then we finished up by just trotting the two little jumps a few more times before doing some more flatwork. He was AMPED! And it was pretty fun. I like a sassy Eros every once in awhile. 

Our saddle rep reached out to check in on how the saddle is doing now that it's more broken in. And I said I still am fighting with it. She had me get some new video and a few different photos to send to her. She said if she has anything in stock that could be better she'll let me try that and is willing to switch it out if I like it. Which, I think is pretty great customer service! Of course, it's not if she doesn't have something better... but we'll cross that road when we get to it. The photo above is one of the ones I sent and I think you can see pretty clearly how this saddle has me sitting too far back. Almost like it's not in the right place on the horse. Very odd. I haven't encountered this before. Hopefully we'll be able to get this worked out soon so we can have some more comfortable work together. 

And that's about it really. Nothing super exciting, but this spring like weather has been glorious which just gets me really excited for all things horse!