What's Up Wednesday

 

After such a busy week last week, this time around, it's been pretty quiet. No complaints though, I had mundane things to catch up on like laundry. But I still spent plenty of time playing with ponies!

Shiny jumped twice this past week as is the norm. We've been doing a low and slow day on Wednesdays meaning we're working over smaller jumps and focusing more on trying to get to her to hold her shape the entire time. She's a little tricky to jump in that it's difficult to keep her moving forward enough to make the strides while also getting her to bend in the corners and stay balanced. I know she's capable, but it's hard for her. Using smaller, single jumps, we can focus more on her body and less on having to keep a bigger pace. I know that will come once she's stronger. Baby steps! Her second jump day of the week we do more coursing and jumping at height (2' to 2'3" for her right now). We had a good week, and I think her jumping form is improving as she gets stronger and holds her shape better between the fences.

Look at her here! I mean she peaked down in the air 
which resulted in this, but DAMN! Imagine if she
jumped like this every time?!

I've been sending video of Eros to my vet to assess his progress, and while I still feel like he's not quite himself, my vet thinks he looks pretty close to his norm. So we've been allowed to canter a little each direction which I think is helping. He always feels better after a little canter work. The temps dropped twenty degrees here between Sunday and Monday, so he's been a little spicy. That probably helps him feel sounder too. Either way, I'll take it! Hopefully he'll be back to normal in no time.

My lesson Thursday with B was... forward thinking.

I never really believed B was an ex eventer, but
I think you can catch a glimpse of it here...

Things started off okay, but he was REALLY wanting to bulge through his left shoulder. Kinda like Shiny does. It's his go to evasion also, so I have practice with that... but he was a little worse than normal this week. He's been getting ridden more by my stepmom now that she's back in the saddle after her accident this spring and less by the trainer. Stepmom is still learning about shape and all that, so he can get away with his bad habits with her a little more. Anyway, the jumping portion of our lesson started off fine, but the more we did, the stronger he was getting. He had zero interest in waiting for the base, and as a result I kept finding the longer spots. Which I really didn't want since he was landing and galloping off. (As evidenced above.) But the nice thing about him, is that even if he isn't fully listening to me, he's still very honest. The jumps never seem overly intimidating. (Especially since we only jump 2'-2'3" usually.) So this week, despite him being a bit of a runaway train, I finally agreed to jump the roll top that I hate. And it was adorable.

Those little knees up around his nose!

I finally, after getting dragged around for awhile asked trainer to get on and feel what I was dealing with. I felt like he could use a tune up from her (she's a lot stronger than I), and I didn't want to get blamed for effing him up. So she hopped on and was like oh wow he's really strong today. (Um, yeah.) And she ultimately decided this wasn't a fix it in one course kind of issue. He had a training ride the next day and seems to back on track. I just want to mention, that despite him not being a perfect pony that day, I would not call him bad by any means. He was just a little extra opinionated. Plus we got some cute photos too:

There could be any number of reasons that B was ornery this week. We all have less good days. But I'm wondering if having to deal with three riders is just too much for him. (We don't overwork him, I only ride him once a week, and trainer alternates with stepmom, so it's not like he's doing two a days or anything.) Fortunately for him, he heads back to FL in a couple weeks, so he won't have to deal with all of us much longer. 

Saturday was a grooming day for Pammon. (I visit everyday, but we only groom a few times a week because I'm lazy and he's feral.) It was a beautiful day and Pammon and his buddies were happy to see me. Well. Not so much me, but the container of cookies I brought at least. 

As I was heading out to go home, I was offered to take one of the sales horses out for a trail ride. OBVIOUSLY, I said yes! It was super fun, and the horse is so lovely!

He's a 6 year old warmblood of some type, around 17 hands, so a big boy! But he was calm and sweet and ambled along the entire ride. Of course he's chestnut so it's a similar view that I'm used to these days. I had so much fun and am so grateful they asked me!

Sunday was an easy day for the horses with light rides in the bitless bridles and some yard snacks. Unfortunately, the yard snacks resulted in poor Eros have slobbers. He's SUPER annoyed by it so hopefully it passes quickly. After Sunday funday rides, I finally clipped Shiny. 

I didn't bother with her head which requires drugs, nor her legs which requires my patience... But the rest of her looks pretty good! Check out those dapples!

I've been working away on my craft projects for some outfit day posts, but delayed deliveries means neither of the two I'm working on will be ready for this week. Boo. Anyway, that's really about it from here. How was your week/weekend? Do anything fun and fall like?