What's Up Wednesday

 

It was a quieter horse week since our day off was later than usual. So we only got in one day of jumpies. I could have jumped again over the weekend, but honestly, doing chores on the weekends leaves me kinda tired and I like to be not excessively tired when we jump. Right now especially since we're still re-acclimating to jumping on our own. My helper caught some kind of bug over the weekend too and had to take Monday off. So I had an extra chore day. Made up for the lack of jumpies! Haha! 

Anyway, we jumped on Thursday so enjoy revisiting my Thursday's Threads outfit from last week. We also planned to jump today, but the horses were zero percent into that endeavor. So we may try again tomorrow. So let's talk ponies!

Things are plugging along with Al. He still has good days and less good days, but those less good days continue to be less tense and angst ridden. So I'm still considering it progress. I can no longer say he hasn't spun since being on the Ulcer Guard... But...

We both got smacked in the face with a pebble-y dust cloud

In his defense, I had the old Pivo set up at that end of the ring, and it blew over as we were walking at it. So it was a justified startle. I would like for these reactions to be a bit smaller... But hey. baby steps. At lease we're having them less! What I was most proud of though, was that once he collected himself, he let me walk him right up to the now tipped over Pivo, and he gave it a good sniff. And then it was over. Even though Pivo looked way scary laying on the ground like that, he went back to work and even jumped around a little. We didn't quite string together courses yet, but we did hop over almost everything in the ring. I was proud of him. 

This was a challenging day in the ring because (as evidenced by Pivo) it was pretty windy which is really something Al struggles with. All those trees blowing around and the shadows that move... Terrifying. But he wanted to be a good boy despite all that. I kept the fences tiny, not because Al cares about height or jumps really at all. But I figured keeping the fences small enough to hop over made it easier for me to feel confident and help us work on refilling our trust bank. I don't even think that little spin incident took anything out of it! So that's a huge thing for Al and me. 

He did give me a giggle though when he jumped up extra high over this little oxer. He didn't seem like he was peaking at it, but mid air he boinged his little knees up extra high. I think he thought the little bees on the ice cream cones were real. 

Scary bees!

But then he came back around and jumped it nicely, so obviously he figured out they wouldn't sting him.

I was reading over my Al notes today and noticed I had a few days this past week where I called our ride wonderful. I haven't been able to say that in a very long time. Yesterday, he was pretty perfect. He moved off my leg when I asked, he did some lateral work, he didn't spook the whole ride I don't think! Unfortunately, today was very windy again and he just wasn't into it. He felt a little funny to me today, not lame, just kind of off his game, so I figured we would chalk today up to being an off day and see what we have tomorrow. But what I want to note, is that while he wasn't great today, he still wasn't a mess. He didn't actually spook while I was on him, though he was throwing stink eye all over. He just was really behind my leg and was a little extra angsty today. But really only at the waving trees. Which I know he struggles with. So no NEW scaries, and he did keep his poo together for the most part. Even bad days can have parts that were good. 

Shiny was great for our jump school last week, though she's been a little extra trippy. We have her on the Rebalance which if it's actually doing something can make them a little extra epm-y for a little bit. My guess is that's what's happening. But last week she jumped around great and did the full course. Some jumps were 2' and some were a little smaller, but it all felt really easy for her. Once we work out the tripping and get her trimmed (they all have grown a ridiculous amount of hoof in the last four weeks!) I think we can start putting the jumps up a little for her. Maybe. We'll see. But look how cute she jumped that day:

This one is my favorite

A little clip montage for your viewing pleasure. I didn't add music. I'm lazy. 

Shiny has officially started her crash diet prescribed by her doc. She hates it. I also kind of hate it, because weighing and soaking hay is annoying. But it's worth it if I can her more healthy. Also, we now have a hay tree. I know it's not ideal to pre-soak hay, but I do the morning portions the night before to make it easier for my helper. He doesn't have an extra 30 minutes to soak hay in the morning, and honestly, the horses expect to eat when we walk in the barn in the morning. So far, it's working fine. Shiny would let me know if it was inedible. Trust me.

As for our attempted jump school today... I think the cut back in calories is affecting her energy levels. I could NOT get her moving off my leg today. FOR THE LIFE OF ME! I tried everything I know and she was like, no mom, this is fast enough. (It was not, in fact, fast enough. At all.) We did pop (chip) over a few little jumps, but I decided to scrap that plan for today and just worked on the flat trying to get her to move along a little more. I imagine it will take her a little time to adjust to the change in diet and also it's possible she's feeling that other med a little bit too. We'll see what tomorrow brings. She didn't seem uncomfortable or like anything was wrong, she just was pokey to the fullest extent. But eh, we all have those days don't we?

Eros is plugging along with his rehab. He's feeling SO MUCH better since getting his neck done. I still think he'll feel even more improved once we work on the hind end too. But I'm happy with where we are at the moment. We are still cantering to start, but I've split off a few of our laps. So we do three laps each way to start, then we do a bunch of trot work (ten minutes) then we do a couple more canter laps each way, but this time it's more of a collected canter, getting him to lift his belly and use his bum. The early canter is on a loose rein and he can be very up and down and hollow. But I don't think it's fair at that point in the ride to try and put him together. So this is working nicely. After our second canter we do another 8 minutes of trot (4 each way) and finish with a nice walk. It ends up being a pretty long ride, and he's starting to feel pretty fit! I, however, am not feeling that fit, so I've started using some of our trot work (on the non windy/spooky days) to do some no stirrup work.

Working on that fitness. But what am I looking down at?

I imagine after our next recheck and maintenance it might be time to start popping over some cavaletti. We shall see! I hope so. I think E misses jumping. He's been a little sassy lately and I think he's bored. 

In other news, it's been busy around here getting the farm in shape. The plumber was here Monday, but he'll be back next week to finish things up. Hopefully my barn bathroom will be functioning again soon! That toilet hasn't worked in like two years. Also on Monday, the pool got opened! 

And this year it cleared up right away which has NEVER EVER happened before. Not ever. 

It's always taken weeks to get it safe for swimming. What a difference it makes to have a really capable team working on it. Now I just need the new heater to get installed so I can actually go in it. The water is currently around 65 degrees in there, and that is not Stacie temperature. Not in the least. Haha!

This is my favorite time of year. It feels like new beginnings. The start of a brand new season. Now I just need our trainer to get home so we can really get to work!