What's Up Wednesday

 

I know it's too soon to call, but we are having glimpses of spring around here. We've had a few days in the fifties even. Of course no warm weather comes tax free so we also have insane winds pretty regularly. But whatever, I'll take it. Anything is better than living weeks at time below freezing. ANYTHING. (Please remind me of this when it won't stop raining in a few weeks,)

Anyway, due to said nice weather, rather than focusing on jumping things, we've been working on transitioning back to riding outside. Thank goodness! Friday I lunged Al outside and he was a bit... excited about it. He definitely had a lot of fun and wore himself right out. I decided not to ride him that day since he did a lot on the lunge. The footing out there is similar to what I have at home, which means it's a bit deeper than what they've been used to in the indoor. I didn't want to make him too sore his first time out there. I forget why I didn't end up doing the others out there that day. It might have started to rain? I can't remember. It might have just been too cold to get them all done. It's not important. 

Saturday though? Saturday was pretty amazing. It was warm. There was sun. I rode Al out there first, and then Shiny after him. We even had friends to ride with! SO NICE! Unfortunately, when it was Eros' turn the wind kicked up at a level that was not conducive to survival. We walked out to the ring and my helmet almost blew off. Eros looked at me like I was nuts, and I agreed. So we went inside. Sunday and Monday were back in the 20's. Ridiculous. 

Al was SO happy to be outside those few days though. Sunday we stayed in but just had a tack walk day (Al's version of Sunday Funday) and he was lovely even in there. What a good boy. I think his crazy lunge time on Friday was something he'd really needed. My horses like to have a good gallop and buck once in awhile, and with the snow, then ice, now mud in the paddocks they really haven't been able to get that out. But he definitely is happiest in an outdoor ring. The one here is nice because it's not surrounded by anything at all. It's up on a little hill with fields around it on the long sides and the paddocks behind it where the horses are turned out all day. Meaning no scary trees nearby, and buddies galore in the back. What more could an Al ask for? So this week, despite conditions being less than ideal, I've ridden him out there. I can't get over how much more relaxed he is outside vs the indoor. Not to say he doesn't still break on my constantly... But when he does, he just kind of peters out very politely with no tension at all. Which... bad behavior yes, and I'm correcting that, but I'll take that over his panicked llama impression he likes to do inside. Yesterday it was chilly and the wind was just silly, but we did the thing anyway. I didn't do a lot, still testing the waters. But we had a nice ride. Today started out pretty nice weather wise. It was low 50's with a breeze but not crazy. Unfortunately about 5 minutes in the wind picked up. It was NUTS. Like I honestly felt I could get blown right off the horse. But you know what Al did? He just went around the ring like a grown up horse. It was so weird. I liked it very much! I did end the ride a little early when we were having a break and the jumps started blowing over. I'm no dummy. I know when to get off. Ha! Still, I was on for a half hour, so that's a full ride if you ask me! Maybe a bit more walking than ideally we'd do, but who cares? I'm really proud of my horse guys. 

I do need to note though, I've been raving a lot about Al's attitude lately because we've had way more good days than bad. Which is definitely a big deal! But we have had a few bad ones too. Last Thursday he was back to his old shenanigans. Spooking at everything, could barely get him to even walk around the indoor ring under saddle. I was pretty frustrated. Like how could this horse, who had been going so nicely for nearly a full week just revert back to an anxious mess? And honestly, I have no idea why. I just know that he did. I was really glad when it was nice enough and the footing was dry enough to take him outside the next day. It absolutely reset his mind back to the good horse I had been enjoying. So will he regress again? Of course he will! That's horses. But hopefully we're getting to a point where he can start trusting me to come back down to earth. Hopefully. Not definitely. But we'll just keep at it either way.

Shiny has been out a couple times and she's definitely happier outside, but no more willing to come forward. Ha. She is who she is. On the one hand it would be nice if she'd feel so happy she would just flow around the ring with a nice big forward step! But on the other hand, I do appreciate that she's the same horse no matter what and there are no antics because we're outside after being cooped up all winter. Growing up, I've always had a hard time getting back outside with my horses. They were always NUTS! Like straight up trying to kill me nuts. All of them. So having a pony that's just like oh cool we're outside. And goes back to her regular self is kind of refreshing. Even if it's painfully slow. Ha! She's actually only ridden out in the ring the one day on Saturday. But Friday after a quick ride inside I walked her down the driveway and back. (Friday everything was still too wet for riding on. The grassy areas were straight up sinking even for little Shiny.) Our drive way is STEEP and pretty long, so it was a nice walk. We went with one of the other boarders and her super sweet horse. Shiny couldn't really keep up with him, but she's not at all bothered by being left behind. (I love a mare that's confident in herself.) I really think she would love to be a pony that just gets to hack out everyday. Which is fun because the boys have no interest in nature. Maybe this well be the year I finally ship out for a trail ride with friends with Shiny. 

I think I mentioned last week that her bloodwork came back so much better so she's started getting one of her hay portions per day unsoaked. Dry, sugar full hay! I bet it's delicious for her. Unfortunately, she's started coughing since starting that... so I think she may end up just having soaked hay the rest of her life. Sigh. She gets her dry hay at breakfast, and I've heard her coughing when she comes in from turnout. But once I ride her she stops. And she doesn't cough during the ride. She did this some before we started soaking hay and I had forgotten all about it since it went away. But I'm going to chat with doc about it. Figured I'd give it a couple days to see if she adjusts. There's nothing coming out her nose, and no fever or anything like that. No weird behavior. Just the bit of a cough for part of the day. I'm not alarmed, but obviously need to make a change if it persists. 

Workin' on his fitness

Poor deprived Eros had not gotten to ride out yet. But if you know Eros, you know he doesn't mind given the wind situation. He doesn't believe in nature and the less he has to see of it the better. Though I'm sure he'll be very happy when we finally do ride out there. He's been going pretty well, though a true right bend is still a thing of folklore. I do think our rescheduled vet appointment is this Friday (fingers crossed) so I'm sure we'll get it figured out then. And if not then, our body worker should be back soon too. I imagine that would help. I finally added the butt band to his Catago version of the equiband and I was amazed at how different he felt with that on! I've only used it once so far, so he walked in it for 6 minutes and then did two laps of trot each way before I pulled it off. (You're supposed to introduce it slowly so they don't get too sore.) But even just from that short time in it, he was moving better. After I took it off too! So that's exciting. I should have done it sooner, but I really thought he might be weird about it. He was not. And when he wasn't, I realized he'd probably gone in the Pessoa rig at the old barn when we first got him and was likely used to the feeling from that. It's been so long since he lost lunge line privileges I hadn't even considered that. Oops. Now I know. I plan to just use the bands once a week usually. But maybe we'll bump up to twice at some point. For a horse like Eros that likes to get a little long and hollow, it's a very useful tool to bring that slinky back together. He reminds me of the dog from Toy Story sometimes. 

I'm not sure how much we'll really accomplish the rest of the week and into next. It's pouring buckets out right now, so I think tomorrow will be an indoor day for everyone. (The rain stops tonight but I think the ring will likely be too wet.) Maybe we'll play with some little jumps if that happens to keep things fun. Friday is hopefully the vet, and then I have non horse things happening at kind of weird times this weekend so I need to fit horses in around those. Then next Wednesday I'm heading up to the University of CT to give a braiding clinic in the evening. So while I won't be super rushed, I can't dawdle at the barn that day. It's nice to have a bunch of things on the calendar though! As much as I love just spending all my time with horses, it is nice to get out of the barn here and there!

How are things for you guys? Is spring trying to arrive for you too? I hope so!!