What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't know if any of you are like me, but I thrive on routine. When my routine changes, it takes me a little while to settle back into the day to day. Things are pretty fluid right now with the horses having moved and trying to find my new daily schedule. We'll get it ironed out soon enough though! Despite my feeling a little disheveled, things have been busy and full of fun!

Last week I mentioned getting my covid booster, but my dr actually ran out before my appointment, so I had to wait until today. I am now boosted though! Hopefully it's kind to me and I can go about my day tomorrow. So I guess that's less fun, but still something good!

Anyway, back to horses. When we last left off, I was looking forward to my lesson with Shiny to see where her head was at. I had a private lesson with the lady who teaches the beginners. I've known her since I was a little kid, and she's wonderful. She's been around horses forever and has loads of useful knowledge, but she also will listen to what I think I'm feeling and my concerns. Not all trainers are like that... Certain personalities seem to think that amateurs know nothing and don't want to listen to us. It's frustrating. Thankfully this person is nothing like that! We started off with some light flatwork to get her listening and her parts moving, and then moved on to the jumping part. We started as easy as it gets with just poles on the ground. After doing them a few times, they became little tiny crossrails, and then eventually little verticals. We kept everything small, probably 18" at most. After popping over all the jumps as little verticals, my instructor said to just go ahead and jump around like I would at home. She would offer advice if I needed it, but she wanted me to try and get the feel I had at my house. It was EXACTLY what we needed. Shiny felt great, and by the end she was really taking me to the jumps like she was enjoying herself. So it may be premature since everything was small, but I think we're no worse for the wear after the clinic. And my apologies for having zero media. No one was around to video. I should have brought Pivo since we had the ring to ourselves. Hindsight and all that.

Dumb and dumber... I mean...
Pammon and his younger lady friend
who lives in the paddock next to his.

In more exciting news, Pammon saw the vet on Friday for his first ultrasound since he temporarily retired last spring. The news was positive. The ligament does not look perfect, but it remains to be seen if it ever will look normal. It's significantly improved though, and doc thinks he's healed enough to start some very light work under saddle. And by work, he means 30 minutes of walking. Which would be boring, but the horse is feral now, so I imagine much excitement will be had. He can do a working walk, not just meander on the buckle. So that should help the time pass.

I put the saddle on him and he looked
at me like he thought I had lost my mind. 
Also, yes that is indeed mud on his feet.

We had our first "ride" yesterday (with a little chemical assistance of course). It went okay until the horse in the ring with us left, and then he seemed like he was going to lose his shit. So 22 minutes was enough for day one. I had an eye dr appointment this morning and then my covid shot appointment this afternoon so I only had time to ride the other two today. I'll get on him again tomorrow though! It's nice to have him back in the rotation again. Hopefully I can keep him healthy this time. Fingers crossed.

Eros had a recheck Friday too, and he also got permission to keep moving along with his rehab. I'm just adding a little time each week to our daily rides, but he's honestly doing almost as much work as we normally would when not rehabbing. The hardest thing about rehabbing horses at a boarding barn is that we can only jump in a lesson. I totally get it, this has been a rule at every barn I've boarded at. But it's tricky because Eros is allowed to add some little jumps into our rides, but I don't think he's quite ready for a full lesson yet. I'll have to see if there's a real beginner jumping lesson we can hop into. The way they do lessons here, they want to warm us up. So it's a lot of flatwork before we ever jump. It's great for some horses, like Bellino and Shiny, but it's not ideal for Eros. We will make it work. I'm DYING to pop him over some fences though! I really need to figure out when I can do that. 

Saturday they hosted a schooling show at the boarding barn. I had originally planned to show Shiny, but after the clinic I decided not to (next one though!). Since I wasn't competing, they asked me if I wanted to judge it. I once judged a schooling show back when I lived in Saratoga, and it was so much fun! So I agreed. And it was super fun! So much respect to real judges though, because it was hard to put these kids in order. Like is it worse to find bad spots to 5 jumps or have two late changes? Tough call. There were only a few divisions: Walk/trot, walk/trot/canter, short stirrup, 2' and 2'6" so I was done around noon. Nice and early with plenty of time to ride! (There were some jumper classes after that were run at all different heights, but they were judged by someone else and were outside leaving the indoor free.) Both horses were great, though we didn't do anything exciting. Just a flat day. As I was finishing up in the barn, a big storm rolled through. I waited it out, and then headed home at which point it was dark out. So I didn't notice right away that the storm had left some tree damage at my farm. 

Good timing at least since the horses aren't there. My barn worker has been working on cleaning this up for me this week, and I'll see if I can fix most of the fencing myself this weekend if he gets finished. The gate may be a loss though, it's pretty broken. 

Always something when you have a farm! Despite the tree problems, it was a great week, full of good news for Pammon and Eros. And Shiny too really. She's going to have a vet check this Friday. Nothing is wrong, but I have a nagging feeling she could use some maintenance. It only hurts my pocket to have her checked out, and that's much better than not checking and hurting my pony. The nice thing about the boarding barn, is there's always horses that need to be seen, so at least the vet call is shared! 

Did you all have a good week? Have some lessons, or do a horse show?