What's Up Wednesday

 

Apparently I took exactly zero photos of any of my horses this week, so this will be a boring wordy post. Sorry. I'm a bad blogger. Maybe I'll just pop in some old photos instead. That will help. (Courtesy of Chelsea Lothrop Photography of course.) Also, I barely remember this week, so it may not be all that wordy. Separately, do you ever wonder if you maybe had a head injury go undiagnosed based on your inability to remember anything some days? No? Just me? Okay then. Anyway....

When we last left off I was preparing for my lesson with Al on Thursday. I had very little angst about it because I was 100% prepared to abort mission if that seemed like what he needed. I'm happy to report that he did not require that! My instructor knew of my current plan with Al, and was happy to play along. She felt like things were going the way I'd hoped (as did I) and didn't see any reason to change course right now. After doing some warm up flat work, we started off trotting some cross rails. Al thought that was easy and boring so we started stringing some together. Everything was teeny tiny and mostly cross rails. This way, if something "scary" grabbed his attention I was still comfortable enough to trot the little jump. Al was really excited to be doing something other than flatting and was very well behaved. We even extended the area of the ring we were using which was a big deal. We used about 3/4 of the arena but mostly jumped heading toward the barn. The one exception was a diagonal fence that was set closer to the non scary end. Still, in the past, that could be a tricky jump for Al, but this lesson, he was great. We strategically had a friend on her horse hang out at the scary end while we jumped which seems to help Al a lot. I see no problem with using these little crutches right now while we work through our stuff. Unfortunately, this instructor is on vacation the next week and a half so we're back to flatting for a bit until she returns. That's okay though. It's ridiculously cold here now, and who even wants to jump in this weather? Not even Al! He continued to be a very good boy through the weekend. Which is encouraging. We're still having low pressure rides, but we've progressed to using 3/4 of the ring for our rides when there isn't a rig happening simultaneously. He's handling that well, and hopefully over the next few weeks we'll be able to get back to rides that are little more like work and less like happy hacks. It's hard to be patient and just let him progress slowly, but I think it's worth doing. 

He came out a little fresh yesterday but there are so many reasons why that's perfectly fair. He had Monday off since the barn is closed, the temps went from 50 on Saturday to teens this week, and with the exception of our lesson last Thursday, our rides have been very short and easy. He's not working enough to stay quiet, so I need to give him the chance to blow off some steam with a free lunge here and there. I should have done that yesterday. Since I didn't, I chose to spend that ride just doing walk trot. He was wanting very badly to revert back to being spooky and I just had to open the trust bank, and let him try to make the right choices. For the most part he did, which was wonderful. I was smart enough to know that the canter might be make shenanigans irresistible though. Ride smarter not harder friends! Anyway, I put him down for a free lunge today but somehow no one saw that. Fortunately, with the cold weather, the barn was a ghost town so I was able to do it myself before riding him. He wasn't overly nutty which was nice, but did let off some steam. He was then kind of too quiet for our ride (and I forgot to put my spurs on, doh!) but I'll take that! He still was a bit spooky, but the ice on the roof was making some sounds and he was alone in the indoor too. He prefers a buddy or two. Though it wasn't a perfect ride, it was a nice ride, and we even did some trot work in more of a working frame. Not for long, just a a little bit each way, but it was a step toward adding some pressure back in. 

There are moments where I feel like he's maybe testing the boundaries of my not pressuring him. Like he's waiting for me to get after him. He'll break sometimes when I don't think he really needs to. I'm trying very hard to just calmly put him back to whatever gait we were in and continue along. But I do sometimes worry I'm causing a different problem by being to nice. I'm still staying the course for now (but will be sure to remember my spurs next ride!) because I really do think I'm doing the right thing for Al at this moment. And if it turns out I was wrong? Well then I'll try something different. Eventually, I'll get it right. Hopefully. 

Shiny had two great lesson last week! One on Thursday morning in which she was pretty perfect and another on Saturday morning in which she was a actual star! Thursday, she was good. If I had any complaints I'd say a little behind the leg, but she was listening nicely and there weren't any antics after the fences. I was happy with her. Friday our chiropractor was out and worked on both Shiny and Al. (Eros sat this session out since he's on vacation. Plus I can use those funds for some other expenses I have this month... sorry E.) Neither horse had any remarkable findings, and in fact, they both were feeling a lot better than last time. So that's great news. 

Saturday, Shiny came out feeling SO GOOD for her lesson. Not in a wild sort of way, but in a very fluid, and comfortable kind of way. In fact, once we started jumping, I actually was over-riding in error because she was so tuned in to my leg (which never happens). It took me a minute to realize I could back off a little and let her take us around instead. It felt amazing. I'm so proud of her. She's missing her Thursday lesson this week since she shares an instructor with Al, but I was planning to do our Saturday with one of the other teachers. BUT (there's always a but) I think it's going to be under 15 degrees for our lesson time (we go first thing) which to me is too cold for working them. And also, my nieces have a recital that morning which I'd like to attend. So no lessons for Shiny this week either. We'll get back to it next week though.

Eros is handling his vacation very well so far. He's hand walking nicely and staying calm for his turnouts. Very encouraging for his recovery. I find that the colder it gets outside the more he hates the ice boots though. He paws for the first five minutes he has them on. Poor guy. I get it. I also hate having to ice. Anyway, I'm glad he's happy and handling things mostly well. Definitely a better patient that Pammon used to be! I sure do miss riding him though. His March recheck can't come soon enough!

That's about it from here. This week will be quiet with no lessons and all the cold weather. But it's nice to have a quiet week after all the drama we've been dealing with! Hope you're all staying warm! Seems like most of the country is cold!