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!

What's Up Wednesday

 

I know it's too soon to call, but we are having glimpses of spring around here. We've had a few days in the fifties even. Of course no warm weather comes tax free so we also have insane winds pretty regularly. But whatever, I'll take it. Anything is better than living weeks at time below freezing. ANYTHING. (Please remind me of this when it won't stop raining in a few weeks,)

Anyway, due to said nice weather, rather than focusing on jumping things, we've been working on transitioning back to riding outside. Thank goodness! Friday I lunged Al outside and he was a bit... excited about it. He definitely had a lot of fun and wore himself right out. I decided not to ride him that day since he did a lot on the lunge. The footing out there is similar to what I have at home, which means it's a bit deeper than what they've been used to in the indoor. I didn't want to make him too sore his first time out there. I forget why I didn't end up doing the others out there that day. It might have started to rain? I can't remember. It might have just been too cold to get them all done. It's not important. 

Saturday though? Saturday was pretty amazing. It was warm. There was sun. I rode Al out there first, and then Shiny after him. We even had friends to ride with! SO NICE! Unfortunately, when it was Eros' turn the wind kicked up at a level that was not conducive to survival. We walked out to the ring and my helmet almost blew off. Eros looked at me like I was nuts, and I agreed. So we went inside. Sunday and Monday were back in the 20's. Ridiculous. 

Al was SO happy to be outside those few days though. Sunday we stayed in but just had a tack walk day (Al's version of Sunday Funday) and he was lovely even in there. What a good boy. I think his crazy lunge time on Friday was something he'd really needed. My horses like to have a good gallop and buck once in awhile, and with the snow, then ice, now mud in the paddocks they really haven't been able to get that out. But he definitely is happiest in an outdoor ring. The one here is nice because it's not surrounded by anything at all. It's up on a little hill with fields around it on the long sides and the paddocks behind it where the horses are turned out all day. Meaning no scary trees nearby, and buddies galore in the back. What more could an Al ask for? So this week, despite conditions being less than ideal, I've ridden him out there. I can't get over how much more relaxed he is outside vs the indoor. Not to say he doesn't still break on my constantly... But when he does, he just kind of peters out very politely with no tension at all. Which... bad behavior yes, and I'm correcting that, but I'll take that over his panicked llama impression he likes to do inside. Yesterday it was chilly and the wind was just silly, but we did the thing anyway. I didn't do a lot, still testing the waters. But we had a nice ride. Today started out pretty nice weather wise. It was low 50's with a breeze but not crazy. Unfortunately about 5 minutes in the wind picked up. It was NUTS. Like I honestly felt I could get blown right off the horse. But you know what Al did? He just went around the ring like a grown up horse. It was so weird. I liked it very much! I did end the ride a little early when we were having a break and the jumps started blowing over. I'm no dummy. I know when to get off. Ha! Still, I was on for a half hour, so that's a full ride if you ask me! Maybe a bit more walking than ideally we'd do, but who cares? I'm really proud of my horse guys. 

I do need to note though, I've been raving a lot about Al's attitude lately because we've had way more good days than bad. Which is definitely a big deal! But we have had a few bad ones too. Last Thursday he was back to his old shenanigans. Spooking at everything, could barely get him to even walk around the indoor ring under saddle. I was pretty frustrated. Like how could this horse, who had been going so nicely for nearly a full week just revert back to an anxious mess? And honestly, I have no idea why. I just know that he did. I was really glad when it was nice enough and the footing was dry enough to take him outside the next day. It absolutely reset his mind back to the good horse I had been enjoying. So will he regress again? Of course he will! That's horses. But hopefully we're getting to a point where he can start trusting me to come back down to earth. Hopefully. Not definitely. But we'll just keep at it either way.

Shiny has been out a couple times and she's definitely happier outside, but no more willing to come forward. Ha. She is who she is. On the one hand it would be nice if she'd feel so happy she would just flow around the ring with a nice big forward step! But on the other hand, I do appreciate that she's the same horse no matter what and there are no antics because we're outside after being cooped up all winter. Growing up, I've always had a hard time getting back outside with my horses. They were always NUTS! Like straight up trying to kill me nuts. All of them. So having a pony that's just like oh cool we're outside. And goes back to her regular self is kind of refreshing. Even if it's painfully slow. Ha! She's actually only ridden out in the ring the one day on Saturday. But Friday after a quick ride inside I walked her down the driveway and back. (Friday everything was still too wet for riding on. The grassy areas were straight up sinking even for little Shiny.) Our drive way is STEEP and pretty long, so it was a nice walk. We went with one of the other boarders and her super sweet horse. Shiny couldn't really keep up with him, but she's not at all bothered by being left behind. (I love a mare that's confident in herself.) I really think she would love to be a pony that just gets to hack out everyday. Which is fun because the boys have no interest in nature. Maybe this well be the year I finally ship out for a trail ride with friends with Shiny. 

I think I mentioned last week that her bloodwork came back so much better so she's started getting one of her hay portions per day unsoaked. Dry, sugar full hay! I bet it's delicious for her. Unfortunately, she's started coughing since starting that... so I think she may end up just having soaked hay the rest of her life. Sigh. She gets her dry hay at breakfast, and I've heard her coughing when she comes in from turnout. But once I ride her she stops. And she doesn't cough during the ride. She did this some before we started soaking hay and I had forgotten all about it since it went away. But I'm going to chat with doc about it. Figured I'd give it a couple days to see if she adjusts. There's nothing coming out her nose, and no fever or anything like that. No weird behavior. Just the bit of a cough for part of the day. I'm not alarmed, but obviously need to make a change if it persists. 

Workin' on his fitness

Poor deprived Eros had not gotten to ride out yet. But if you know Eros, you know he doesn't mind given the wind situation. He doesn't believe in nature and the less he has to see of it the better. Though I'm sure he'll be very happy when we finally do ride out there. He's been going pretty well, though a true right bend is still a thing of folklore. I do think our rescheduled vet appointment is this Friday (fingers crossed) so I'm sure we'll get it figured out then. And if not then, our body worker should be back soon too. I imagine that would help. I finally added the butt band to his Catago version of the equiband and I was amazed at how different he felt with that on! I've only used it once so far, so he walked in it for 6 minutes and then did two laps of trot each way before I pulled it off. (You're supposed to introduce it slowly so they don't get too sore.) But even just from that short time in it, he was moving better. After I took it off too! So that's exciting. I should have done it sooner, but I really thought he might be weird about it. He was not. And when he wasn't, I realized he'd probably gone in the Pessoa rig at the old barn when we first got him and was likely used to the feeling from that. It's been so long since he lost lunge line privileges I hadn't even considered that. Oops. Now I know. I plan to just use the bands once a week usually. But maybe we'll bump up to twice at some point. For a horse like Eros that likes to get a little long and hollow, it's a very useful tool to bring that slinky back together. He reminds me of the dog from Toy Story sometimes. 

I'm not sure how much we'll really accomplish the rest of the week and into next. It's pouring buckets out right now, so I think tomorrow will be an indoor day for everyone. (The rain stops tonight but I think the ring will likely be too wet.) Maybe we'll play with some little jumps if that happens to keep things fun. Friday is hopefully the vet, and then I have non horse things happening at kind of weird times this weekend so I need to fit horses in around those. Then next Wednesday I'm heading up to the University of CT to give a braiding clinic in the evening. So while I won't be super rushed, I can't dawdle at the barn that day. It's nice to have a bunch of things on the calendar though! As much as I love just spending all my time with horses, it is nice to get out of the barn here and there!

How are things for you guys? Is spring trying to arrive for you too? I hope so!!

What's Up Wednesday

 

Oof. I mean you all know the bad news. But that aside, it actually was a pretty good week. I've been riding a TON! Which is fun, though harder than I remember it being when I was younger... Ha! Today I rode six, but thankfully two were rehabbers so they mostly walked. It was lots of fun, and I really love getting to sit on something that doesn't know me from time to time. Make sure I'm still doing things correctly, ya know? 

My own tall kids have all been quite good lately. Let's start with Shiny this week. We had our lesson Thursday, and though she was tripping a lot, she was very good. Our current lesson mate mostly jumps crossrails and small verticals, so we've been keeping the jumps low. I'm really fine with that. Shiny doesn't need to jump big jumps. She was really excited though, and was taking me to everything. I love when she's in that mood! Our vet was out Friday and he was able to squeeze her in for a shockwave treatment on her neck. It made a HUGE difference. When I rode her Saturday and Sunday, she didn't trip at all. Not even once. This week she has a few times, so it doesn't seem to hold that long, but still, she's in a better place than she was before the treatment. Doc says sometimes you have to do a few treatments before it really holds. So I'll probably do it again in a few weeks. She sees the body worker later this week too, so maybe that will also help. We missed a month because our lady was in Florida, so we're overdue for that. 

Eros got to jump outside for the first time this season on Thursday. I was pretty convinced he'd be a torpedo, but he actually wasn't too bad. I did have a little more horse than I really would have liked, but he was listening, and he didn't actually run away with me. So I'd call that a win! Our Tuesday flat lesson has shifted from 4 pm to 3pm which means that Eros doesn't get to eat dinner before it. Let me tell you. Boy has some FEELINGS about that. He's Eros, so he's still perfect, but he spends most of the hour trying to pull me out of the saddle. Which is downright hilarious. I mean, even the instructor laughs about it. That horse kills me. He's so funny. Even when he's "bad", he's not all that bad. I'm not sure if we'll be outside tomorrow or not for our lesson. It's been cold here again and really windy. So far this week, we've mostly been indoors. Doesn't really matter though, we'll have fun in either ring.

Al lessoned both Friday and Sunday last week. And guys, he was GREAT. Like so great. He was outside for both which definitely helps him. We jumped everything in the ring without the trainer having to do it first. He still gets a little spooky about things outside the arena, but he's pretty focused at the jumps. We didn't jump any really big fences, but we did a couple courses at 3' and then a few fences went up a little bigger for our last time around. I have some blurry screens shots to share:

I'm hugely relieved that I haven't completely ruined this horse. I guess he just hates winter even more than I do? I dunno. Regardless, I'm really happy to have this good boy back. He's even been fairly well behaved back indoors this week. We lesson again on Friday. Hopefully the good streak will continue.

That's really about it from here on the horsey front. How are things with you guys?

What's Up Wednesday

 

The weather is FINALLY getting nicer here. It's been overcast and/or raining forever. It's also been pretty cool (high 40's low 50's) and insanely windy. Seems like for forever honestly. 

ICE! On the ground. In May.

But today? Today it was finally AMAZING out. It got up to the low 70's and the sun even came out for part of the day. Felt amazing! Despite all the crummy weather though, we've been plenty busy around here!

Al had his usual two lessons last week. Friday wound up being a private and we were able to be outdoors for it. He was mediocre for the flatwork but was pretty fantastic for the jumping portion. Well... we were after we got the first course out of our system, lol! Nothing terrible happened the first time around, but I had his stride a little more open than I realized and we closed the lines up a lil' too much for some ugly jumps. But the next time around we got it all together and it was lovely. I was most excited for the last course though because we actually jumped a 3'6" oxer! It was out of a line I'd already jumped so I wasn't too likely to mess it up. (I appreciate being set up for success!) It's been many years since I've jumped anything at that height, so I was feeling pretty proud of Al and myself! 

Random screen shot from another day

Unfortunately, for Sunday we were back inside. It was barely 40 degrees out, and the wind kept blowing all the jumps over outside. Al is still hating the far end of the ring, which was an added challenge for the fence work. It was also kind of a chaotic morning in general. The horses were all pretty sassy with the cold weather. During the course of our 45 minute lesson, one horse spun someone off, and another ran off with it's rider... The most perfect animal in the barn actually stopped at a fence... It was that kind of morning. Al wasn't especially wild, but he was being ridiculous about the end of the ring. The fences themselves were all pretty good, it was getting to them that was tricky! But by the end he was a bit better and we all were happy to call it a day. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can be back outside for this week. 

Pammon is plugging along still too! We finally ventured outside one day last week when the wind wasn't too crazy and he was perfectly well behaved. We've mostly been inside since, but I'm hoping tomorrow we can head out there again. He's cantering three laps of the indoor each way this week, so things are getting pretty serious! 

Eros is currently annoyed with me, but I kind of think he just really needs a free lunge. The first few days at home he was downright lazy, but I didn't argue about it too much figuring he deserved a few days to settle back in. But he wound up having Sunday and Monday off this week, so now he's full of sass. He's not especially spooky, nor is he acting overly wild... But he's HEAVY and has zero interest in actually working. When I ask for bend he locks his jaw. When I ask him to lift his back and give at the poll, he grabs the bit and throws his head down to the ground. Like little temper tantrums! I know he needs his hocks done, which is part of the problem, but honesty I just think he doesn't want to get back to real work. Once I get a little tough with him, he does what I ask. He just wants to argue about it first. Teenagers. 

We have popped over some little jumps a few times, and he's been rideable every time, though not as relaxed as he was the first day we jumped last week. Still more quiet than he's been all winter though, so I'll take it. Please enjoy this fail video to hold you over until I get Pivo charged and running again:

Shiny's been getting back to work now that she's had body work done. Which doesn't mean that she's magically willing and forward and easy... but today we cantered both directions without kicking out so I'll call that a win! The leg is looking better too. It still fills some at night, but after our rides it's nearly back to normal. She's also gotten over her fear of the ice boot and I'm able to use the bigger one again which is nice. 

In non horsey news, I finally started PT for my knee injury from that tipped braiding ladder incident last year. I've never actually done PT before. I've been told to a few times, but as a younger, more naive person I never followed through. Since I'm old now, I figure I should try to preserve this vessel of mine so I can keep riding horses into my old age. Anyway... It was interesting! The assumption is that I have a torn meniscus, but either from compensating for that, or possibly just additionally, there are two other parts of my knee that are kind of messed up too. Both the lateral AND medial collateral ligaments are a bit angry. Who knew? It makes sense to me given how it felt when the injury first happened... but I hadn't noticed any pain in those areas recently until the therapist was poking around. Nothing too major though, and we think it will all be just fine if I do all my exercises religiously. So I'm gonna try my best to do that. The exercises are not especially difficult, but they sure do leave my legs tired! Probably stuff I should have been doing my whole life. I'm terrible at working out. 

This heating pad thing inside the towel was pretty amazing.
Also yes, I wore breeches to PT. I was riding after!

And that's about it from here! How was your week/weekend? Have you ever done PT? Was it helpful?

What's Up Wednesday

 

Spring is making an actual effort to show up this week! While it stupidly snowed over the weekend, yesterday and today temps were in the 60's and we have started riding outdoors! YAY!!! I chickened out on riding Al outside yesterday, but he had a training ride out there today and was pretty good. He's definitely not sure about the giant sprinkler heads, but otherwise wasn't too concerned about the great outdoors. I think it's going to rain tomorrow, but hopefully I'll be brave and ride him out another day soon. Eros did the second half of his ride out yesterday, and the full ride out today, and he was absolutely perfect. Shiny had two full rides out this week, and she was definitely happy to be out. I think this is the first time in my life that I've had horses that don't make a big scene about the move back outside. It's pretty refreshing! That said... I have not taken Pammon out there yet. Lol. Hey, my brave bank is only so full.

Prior to this amazing weather, things have been going just fine with the tall kids. Al's been a super hero in our lessons. He EXHAUSTS me fully, but not in a bad way. Eros was especially good in his lesson last week too. We were able to string a few fences together without him getting strong. Of course, soon we'll be lessoning outside and we'll probably need to start over again... but I'll enjoy the good while I have it. Shiny feels SO much better since her injections. We're still having a struggle about the first few canters, but once she's going she feels incredible. So I'm not entirely sure what the drama is about. Perhaps that's just who she is as a pony? Pammon is starting week two of ten minutes trotting, and he's feeling stronger already. Next week he'll start rigging one day a week and we'll see how that goes. I've never used one, so for now, I'll pay for the trainers to do it. I'll learn before he comes home if I decide to bring him home this summer. 

Not too much else to report on this week. The nice weather has me feeling excited for spring and horses at home! So I'm feeling motivated to get things ready here. How are things with all of you? Weather treating you better?