What's Up Wednesday

 

It was SO nice having time off from work last week and getting to ride horses all day long! Alas. All good things must come to an end and I'm back to my regular schedule. It's a little tiring the first few days back to the regular routine, but I do like the structure. 

All the horses saw the chiro/body worker (Dr. F) this past week. Pammon and Eros both got good reports. She said they both needed a few adjustments, but just kind of normal stuff for horses their age doing what they're doing. She thought they were both improved over last month. So I'll take it! They both felt great riding the next day too. Eros was like a whole new horse. I wish I could get Dr. F out more often, but she travels pretty far to us. Plus she's off to Florida for the rest of the winter, so this is it for awhile. Boo.

unrelated photo of me snuggling Pamnonypony

Shiny was kind of a mess. Her left hind end was totally out of alignment and it was pretty reluctant to get put back in. She's also using herself completely incorrectly causing some back stuff. So our homework is to try to get her lifting her belly and back when she's working... So far it's not going well. Lol. She's been very resistant since getting worked on, but I think understandably. Since she was such a mess, I'm sure she was a little sore after. Last night she did offer up some really beautiful trot work in between fighting me for it. I could really feel her butt moving on both sides, but I think she still could lift more through her back. Baby steps though. We'll get there someday. I think lifting her belly is SUPER hard for her. She's built more to pull a cart than to carry a human. 

Nothing super exciting to report on the riding front other than that. Pammon was a little better today, but the canter was still a bit of a ticking time bomb. He is going to get that free lunge tomorrow, so hopefully a little gallop will get rid of that. I do appreciate him letting me know he's wild though. Always better than being surprised!

In other news, I finally found some snap on browbands that were fairly inexpensive that I could deface. So the cow outfit and my future peppermints outfit will be fully ridiculous. 

I'm not the most patient person so these could surely be done better with some kind of patterned wrapping or whatever. But they're good enough for me! It's not like they're for the show ring or anything, (HAHAHAHA! Could you imagine?!)

Lastly, I was able to get back on my ladder this weekend! 2020 basically canceled this side gig of mine. I think I braided 6 manes the entire year? So I was a little anxious that I wouldn't do a good job. I was also worried because one of these horses I had to do is HUGE and also young. Like HUGE, HUGE. For sure over 18 hands. 

Ladder for scale

Also me for scale. I'm 15.2 hands.
Also, I look crazy here. 

Like... How was I going to do his forelock?! And would he stand still? I've braided his barn mate many times in the past and this guy was always so busy in his stall while I was there. I thought for sure he'd be the same way to braid. But you know what? He was an ANGEL! He even lowered his head for me to do his forelock. 

Icing on the cake was that they both came out pretty decently. Phew. 

Also, the barn was heated (60 degrees!) so it was perfectly comfortable in there to work. Even took my coat off!

That's about it from here. How was your week?