Wednesday, February 24, 2021

What's Up Wednesday

 

I was so excited to get to write all about my first jumping lesson with Pammon since his injury! But alas... it didn't exactly happen. The last several rides he's been feeling a bit back sore, and I think it's due to the cold weather. Things are starting to warm up around here though (above freezing yesterday and mid forties expected today!) so hopefully that will resolve with the better weather. That wasn't the only issue though. Oh no...

See all that snow hanging off the side of the roof? SEE IT?! Yeah. That was falling off all weekend long. If you've never experienced snow coming off an indoor, you suck I will tell you, it's terrifying. It clunks and bangs all the way down. On most indoors you just have the sound which is scary enough for a horse. (Especially since it's happening overhead.) But we have all these great windows around the ring. Generally I love having them as it allows for lots of light. BUT when the snow is falling, the horses not only hear it, they also can see it. To add to that chaos, you don't really know when it will decide to move, nor where it will be moving. Someone said it's like Russian Roulette for horses. Accurate.
I'm the type of rider that likes to set herself AND her horse up for success. And snow falling off the roof combined with his stiffness did not feel like a successful set up to me. So I DID have a lesson, but we stuck to flatwork and some raised cavalletti. He really was a good boy, but I am disappointed we didn't get to the fun stuff just yet. Hopefully this week!

You know who got a big gold star with the roof chaos? EROS! I know. I didn't expect it either. I was legit dreading getting on him. He can be so spooky and he spins so fast... I really wasn't wanting to get lawn darted again. I decided to stuff his ears for a little added measure, and you guys! He was perfect. He barely even jumped when the snow clunked. I apologized to him for assuming the worst. He's just such a good guy. 

That time he wore a tiny hat...

Eros is going well. Nothing too crazy to report with him. We've been hopping over lots of poles on the ground and even did some raised cavalletti in our lesson last night. It was tricky, there was a line set up of a raised pole, one on the ground, and then another raised one. They were set about 4 strides apart. We had to canter the first, trot the middle, and canter the last. It was SUPER easy off the left lead which is his easy way. But going right it was a big struggle for us. It's amazing to me how extremely different he is from one side to the other. My goal is to someday even that out... Might take a lifetime.

You know who else has been a better pony? Shinypants! Our canter transitions are still a problem, but we're actually making transitions so I'll take it. She's cantering both directions every day, and I'm even starting to get her back into some contact at the trot. None of it is consistent, but I'm happy with whatever baby steps I can get. I've been keeping the rides short. If she tries (TRIES) everything I ask for, she can be done. I don't have any expectations for holding anything very long, but she has to make an effort. Slowly. as things go better and better (ideally) we will add time to our rides. 

Friday evening had a super weird vibe in the ring. Both Eros and Shiny were really snorty by one side of the ring and I found out later that several other horses were too. Shiny is not a spooky pony, so when she acts like that I know something is up. My only guess is that there was an animal outside or something like that. Everyone was over it by the next day, so whatever it was, it's gone now. Anyway, back to Friday. Shiny was being quite snorty and acting like she needed a free lunge. So I let her have one instead of riding. Between the scary long side and the snow on the roof coming down, it just seemed like a battle I wasn't interested in getting into on a Friday night. So I hopped off, stripped her tack and let her have a gallop. Pony can buck you guys! I'm so glad she saves that nonsense for free time and doesn't show me under saddle. (She's the most sensible animal I think I've ever owned. Even if she is super belligerent.) The little kids were hanging around and they had so much fun watching Shiny run around. Then they fawned all over her and lead her over a raised cavalletti at the walk. It was adorable. With the littlest kiddo Shiny very carefully walked over. But with the bigger girls, she actually jumped (also carefully) over it. So cute. I love this pony. Despite her challenges.

That's about all from here for the most part. I've started the yearly closet purge, so hopefully I'll get that completed over the next few weekends. I know that seems like a long time to clean out the closet, but you guys can guess how much clothing I have I'm sure... 

I've also been making some fun prints for saddle pads. I've been using free clip art from the interwebs, and a few apps to create them. I found a company in Pakistan that will print pretty much anything on to matchy sets. It's not overly cheap, so I'm spreading out the ordering. And I'm not getting bonnets done for most of them to save some money. But I'm excited to share them with you guys! I did my logo already, but now I want to have them redone with the revamped artwork. So I'll share the first edition with you:

Cute right?! They seem pretty flexible as far as sizing and changing things around. I asked for baby pads with more shape at the withers instead of regular pads (these have a pretty straight spine too) for the next order, so we'll see how those come out. 

How was your week/weekend? Horses good? I know a lot of you were in the path of that awful weather clusterf(*& in TX, so I hope you're all okay and on the road to recovery from that!

8 comments:

  1. Your logo set is so cute! I'm glad everyone is being pretty good, even with all the scary snow melt. I guess the perk of not having an indoor is I don't have to deal with that? Of course the downside is I haven't been on a horse in over a month, lol. Tradeoffs! Hopefully it warms back up for you and there is no more snow to deal with :)

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    1. Right?! I was, just a teeny bit, missing the winters past where I just didn't bother riding January through March...

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  2. Aw the logo set is awesome!!
    And yes, gold star to Sir Eros!!

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    1. Thanks! Yes, he got extra cookies for being a big brave boy!

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  3. Cool logo set! The boots look really cute!

    And man, snow and ice on an indoor is nerve wracking! I used to ride in a coverall and the snow coming off made this big zipper sound as it slid down and then crashed against the sides. Eesh. lol Don't miss dealing with that!

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    1. Thanks!
      Yes! We had a fabric indoor where I boarded in high school, and it sounded exactly like an enormous zipper. HORRIFYING!

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  4. aw, yay for having 2 out of 3 horses going super well right now! sorry to hear the jump lesson with Pammon didn't work out this week --- it'll happen soon, tho, hopefully!!

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    1. I'm sure it will! Maybe even this weekend... Fingers crossed!

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