Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit Day! We kept it simple this week and stayed with our farm colors theme. Eros is our model, and here's what he's wearing:

This is such a weird angled photo! His neck looks scrawny somehow (it is not in real life!) and my saddle looks comically small for some reason. 

Bridle: Pinnacle

Brow band: Boy O'Boy Bridleworks

I love this color bridle on him. It matches him perfectly!

Saddle: Butet
Half Pad: Mattes
Baby Pad: Ogilvy

I love this shade of brown from Ogilvy. But I am hoping they release a really rich dark brown someday. 

Eros didn't have boots or wraps on this day since we were just flatting. So here's what I am wearing this week:

I had to have a little fun with an otherwise very tame outfit. Right?

Helmet: One K Avance CCS MIPS

My helmet is dusty. It's shocking to me how we can get so much rain around here and still have dust! Anyway, I'm so happy I found this fun front shield when I was at Equine Affair last fall. I love a little sparkle. 

Shirt: FitEq

I'm still a little sad this company is no longer around. The shirts are a little nicer than the ones I get from Amazon and I loved the little horseshoe on the chest.

Belt: Levi's

I've had this belt in black since college and I wear it all the time. I recently happened upon this brown one in Poshmark and snapped it right up! 

Breeches: RJ Classics

These are the Harper model with the defective pockets. I still really like the breeches though, even if the pockets no longer have bottoms to them... Haha, just don't put anything in there!

Boots: Celeris UK

These will forever and always be my favorite boots. I call them the Hunt Seat Cowgirl. 

That's it for today! A little plain, a little fun. Perfect for who I am as a person! Haha!

What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't have much to report on this week as I've only ridden a handful of times since last Wednesday. Everyone survived my weekend away just fine thanks to a wonderful farm sitter. I think Al was a little perturbed by my absence. When I got home, he wouldn't come over and say hi. He ALWAYS comes to the door when he sees me. But he's forgiven me now. Phew!

I was hoping to jump today and get some fun media for everyone, but we had some dreary weather and all the horses were like meh. Let's go slow and not work hard. And I worked really hard to very little response from any of them, and basically just decided to flat instead. I did pop Shiny over a few things because I started riding her in Eros' saddle again this week and I wanted to see how she jumped in it. It actually seems to working pretty well for her now. The pads aren't slipping, and I think she jumped better in it than her own saddle. But she was SLOOOOOWWWWW. We did 8 in the 5 this week though, so better than last week. Lol! 

That saddle I found for her sold literally minutes before I went to dinner tonight. So that's disappointing. Back on the hunt. But in the meantime, Eros' is working out, so that's good at least. 

As for Eros... I think I worked him too hard in his workout bands earlier this week because he came out a little extra stiff and possibly more unmotivated than his sister. But he worked out of his creakiness and had a nice flat. I think we're getting rained out tomorrow (Thursday) but maybe over the weekend we'll try to jump. 

This photo makes me giggle a little because I don't think of Eros as a big horse (he is 16.3 which is a good size) but I look kinda small here! I think it's the angle.

Al's had an interesting re-entry to work life after his weekend vacation. The one thing I will say about this horse is that he's the same horse whether he's been ridden or not... And by that I mean you never really know what you're gonna get, and not riding him doesn't change that! Haha! I always laugh a little when I read that in sales ads because saying the horse is the same whether it's worked or not doesn't mean it's well behaved. Just means it's always the same! Anyway, I digress. I rode Monday this week since they didn't need four full days off. Monday Al was pretty good. I took it easy on all of them since it was the first day back and I had to be done a little early for Rosh Hashana dinner. But he made an effort to behave himself and I let him know I appreciated that. Tuesday was another story though. It was a warm day but pretty windy as storms were working our direction. And when I got on Al the neighbor decided it was the perfect time to make a whole bunch of noise right next to the ring. Al's getting pretty good at ignoring certain neighbor noise, but the wind in the trees had him pretty worked up. After walking for quite awhile and having a very low level of his attention, I decided to work him on the lunge instead. He was pretty good on the lunge so I figured I'd get back on and see what I had. He was still really distracted, and since he'd worked nicely on the lunge, I just spent some time at the walk cooling him down and working on getting his attention on me instead of the blowing trees. And you know what? By the end I'd say I had about 80% of his attention on me. I'll take that. I just had him dong a serpentine through the little gymnastic that's set up in the middle of the ring. I really focused on getting him to change the bend through his entire body each time we crossed the middle. The first several times through the exercise I'd lose his attention in the same spot, but by the last two passes through I had him the entire time without a change in pace or shape. And I quit on that. The difference between this week and a couple weeks ago was that I was happy with that win. Not disappointed that I only could accomplish it at the walk. 

And today? Today he was pretty great. Still very suspicious of the one long side, but I had him touching that side on both ends of the ring today. We'd go to the rail, around the jump and then head back to the quarter line. Rinse and repeat each direction. And we were able to do it at all three gaits! I had hoped to jump a little, but he tripped and nearly fell over the little cavalletti I wanted to warm up over and decided it wasn't our day for jumping. But we had some really nice flat work. Another win!

I mean really. Look at him! What a dude! So what if we're remedial. At least we look good doing it.

So that's what the horses and I have been up to. It was a really fun non horse weekend at the wedding with my family. It was fancy with cocktail attire for the rehearsal dinner AND the Sunday brunch, and semi formal for the wedding itself. So I was in heels longer than I've worn heels in the last what? 15 years? I'm properly unsound this week after all that. But it was fun to play dress up! Here's my dress for the wedding:

It's the perfect shade of hunter green and I really hope I find some other even to wear this to some day. I didn't get a photo on Friday night, but at least those heels were chunky! And here's me and my mom at Sunday brunch:

I'm 5'2" (And a 1/2!) so yes, my mom is really tiny. I do have a small heel on here, but still. She's SHORT! Also, note my high quality farmers tan on my arms. You can take a girl off the farm but certainly can't take the farm off the girl. And also yes, I had given up on trying to do something with my hair by Sunday. I really only am capable of hunter hair if we're being honest. Completely lost without a helmet.

That's it! That's all I've got for this week. Did you all have a good weekend?

What's Up Wednesday

 

This past week was a little horse light as it was a little busy around here with the holiday. It's not really as though I have a busy social life, but my dad does... and it trickles down. Lol! We have an annual 4th of July cruise we take with some friends of the family and that happened this year on Friday the 5th. Boat left at 1, so I might have had time to ride one horse, but I decided to just let them all have the day off. We all deserve a holiday now and then. The food was RIDICULOUS on the boat and I think I gained 10 lbs in one afternoon. 

It was lovely. But the extra day off messed with our schedule a little bit. I normally jump Wednesdays and Fridays. I prefer not to jump after a day off so this week it was Wednesday and Sunday. I didn't set up Pivo Sunday though, so I don't have any media from that day. My new Pivo X broke so I've been limited to the old one, and that one is being difficult... I had better luck today though AND my replacement pod arrived tonight. So hopefully next week we'll be back in business. Just a quick shout out to Pivo, when my X pod broke, I sent a short clip of what was wrong with it, and they just replaced it, no arguments. So high five for that! 

We've been pretty lucky with the weather here at the farm. We were supposed to be under a heat advisory the last couple of days, but it hasn't really been that hot. Yesterday a little bit since it was sunny. But today, it wasn't bad at all. It was overcast and it was windy. The humidity was nuts, so we were all very sweaty, but the heat really wasn't bad. I do see 90's in the forecast for next week though, so I'm not sure if we'll continue to luck out. No complaining from me though, summer is my season. I'll take the heat, even if it messes with riding occasionally. 

Anyway, you're not here to talk about the weather. Let's talk ponies! 

Why, yes that IS a blurry screen shot of Al jumping 3'

Al is wonderful. Truly. I'm not sure if it's solely because oppressive heat and humidity makes for a well behaved Al, or if he's really come around to being a very good boy. But whatever it is, I shall enjoy it while I have it! I was looking back at our daily notes, and nearly all of them say what a good boy he was that day. There was one day last week that I called him medium. He was a bit spooky, but came around and finished well that day. And that was the only "bad" day the whole week. So proud of him. 

As in the past, as I let him jump a little bigger, he gets easier and easier to ride. I'm not sure why I forget that every year, but it sure is nice to figure it out eventually. I don't really feel that comfortable jumping bigger than 3' by myself, so we'll probably stay at this height for awhile, but boy was he easy to get to the bigger fences. He's such a weird little horse. The part that's the hardest for me (jumping) is the easiest for him, and that's why I've stuck it out with him through this rough patch we had. This horse gives me wings in a way that I've never felt before. Not even Bud nor Rio made me feel like it was easy to jump high. I felt confident on them, and we put it all together pretty well, but I still wouldn't have called it easy. Al is. Most of the time. He's still a little lazy and would like to hide behind my leg on landing. But once he gets locked on to something, it's like point and shoot. 

I have a few more terrible screen shots to share of him. I didn't try to run Pivo for his ride as I didn't want to miss all of our attempts at bigger jumpies. So my apologies that the quality is terrible. But this is a personal blog, not a major publication. And therefore, these are "good enough". 

We had a lot of fun today. I hope we keep it up! 

I'm not sure what's happening with my hands. 

Eros continues to do well. I've chosen to repeat last week's rehab schedule because we were a little inconsistent between weather and the holiday. But we have started adding in some more circles, some lateral work, AND lead changes! So lots happening for him this week. 

The circles are still very large and only at the trot for now. But all seems good so far. His favorite part is still stretchy trot though.

I'm not getting a good low stretch yet though. We're overdue for the body worker so I'm thinking that's the issue. He got all that maintenance but it all happened after his last adjustment. So I think that's the final piece of the puzzle. Not that he doesn't feel good, he does. I just think he could feel even better. I try to tack our body work visits on when the other barn has their horses done. Since our places are so close together, she includes me in the split on the barn call instead of charging me a full one. For some reason, they haven't scheduled her since the last time she was out in May, so that's why we are behind. If they don't schedule soon I'll see what it will cost to have her come just for us. But I'm afraid it might be A LOT. She comes from a few hours away. 

Shiny is doing pretty well too! I finally put the spurs back on. I figured since she's wearing the belly band anyway, she shouldn't get a rub from them. So far so good on that front. I wish I could say I've trained this pony to move nicely off my leg without the spur, but I haven't and she doesn't. I've said it before and I'll it again, I am not a horse trainer. I can't work miracles. Haha! Anyway, she's listening slightly better with the spurs back on, so that's been nice. She's always been this way, but she starts out SO SLOW even when we're jumping. It's like she has to slog around and trip over herself before she'll bother with engaging her hind end and moving forward. I'm not sure why she's like that. It's just who she is as a pony I guess. Maybe it's on me too. Maybe I should just pick the fight right away and avoid the slogging around? But it feels so mean. I like to give her the opportunity to step up to the plate before I get after her. I guess as long as we get there eventually, that's the important part. 

That's about it from here. Things are good, and I'm starting to look for a little local one day show to go to. I have a few options, I just need to see if I can line up a groom and see if I can get someone to do the chores at home that day. Oh and a trainer. I need one of those too probably. Fortunately, I just got a braiding job for Friday that will pay for a one day show, so yay for that! I'll be filling in for a much better than me full time braider, so I'll be paid her rate instead of my lower one... I hope I can live up to her standards! Her braids are incredible. Mine are nice, but nothing like hers. This isn't imposter syndrome, hers look like they were produced by a machine. Every single braid is identical. It's amazing. The trainer whose horses I'll be braiding is one that I rode with my last junior year. She's very accomplished and one that I would try and train with again if our paths cross. So I'm excited for this job! I won't see her, she's already away at another show. But still. Feels kind of like a full circle moment.

Okay, that's really it from here. Enjoy this adorable photo of Rita sleeping as I sign off...

What's Up Wednesday

 

Another short update this week. There's just not a lot happening around here right now! Not a bad thing, just makes for a boring blog post. 

We'll start with Al since he's the most interesting these days. He's definitely much improved over where he was, but still isn't right behind. I'm really very confident it's not an abscess at this point as he's happy to have it flat now. I think whatever is wrong is up higher, maybe stifle? Maybe something in his butt? Not sure exactly. Vet comes Friday finally so hopefully I'll get some answers. I did get on Al today so I could feel what I was seeing. And it feels worse than it looks. Which I had an inkling would be the case. He's really not terrible, but for sure isn't quite right. Looking forward to hopefully getting some answers Friday.

Eros is doing great. I think he's maybe coming due for hocks but I haven't decided yet if that's true. I think we just need to get back to working on the hind end a little more. We've certainly been a little lazy in that department. I'm going to give a few more weeks and see where we are then. 

In our lesson last week, he was almost too quiet. I didn't quite know how to ride him! He was great though, once I got him in front of my leg. Went right around, and was even adjustable in the lines. Some kind of winter miracle! We jump again tomorrow, so fingers crossed he's the same quiet boy this time too.

And then there's little Shiny pants. I made the decision last week after she nearly bucked me off in my lesson, that I need to be a little more assertive with her. I tend to err on the side of caution and always assume that when she's being difficult it's because something is bothering her. And generally, I think that's the correct approach to horses. But back to that lesson... 
So she's been difficult about picking up canter for awhile now. It's something that seems to happen every winter and occasionally in the summer as well. In our lesson last week, she was angrily kicking out when I asked for it, and at one point even bucked fairly hard when I insisted. But eventually she would pick it up and the canter itself felt fine. Once in the canter, she was mostly agreeable like it wasn't actually hard for her. Anyway, we were jumping a course of small jumps (MAYBE 2' if I'm being generous) and after the diagonal vertical she stumbled kind of hard, but in the process of righting herself she let out a HUGE buck. Like her feet were above her head huge. Who knew she could even do that? Anyway, after that happened, she was amazing. Moved forward off my leg, jumped great, zero complaints from her. I'm not sure if that buck fixed whatever had been bothering her, or if the stumble made her realize it was in her best interest to carry herself properly rather than fighting me on her forehand. Whatever the reason, she was great the rest of the lesson. 
The next day though, she was trying to be snarky again about picking up the canter. This time, I let her complain but refused to give up on asking. After a couple of arguments she started cantering nicely without complaint. She still isn't as prompt as I'd like her, but as long as she's moving forward and keeping her feet out of the air, I'll take it for right now. I've been really making her work when we ride ever since. Lots of lengthening and shortening. Revisiting the lateral work that we had shelved for awhile. That sort of thing. And each day she's gotten more willing. The last two rides she hasn't kicked out at all, not even for the first canter depart. In conclusion, I think sometimes with horses (and maybe especially ponies) it really is an attitude problem and not a physical problem. Is it always? Probably not. But sometimes it is, and I need to get better at figuring out which problem we're having.

That's all that's new with the horses. Hopefully I'll have a report on Al next week and a plan to move forward. Doggos are holding their own for now. P is looking pretty old, but she's still hanging in there. I had a really busy Sunday which involved getting all three horses done before 10 AM, a baby shower, and then picking up my dad and stepmom from the airport. When all that was done, I had to go back to the barn to wrap up Al's dermatitis foot. (It's NEARLY all gone!) I decided to take Rita back with me since she's been begging to go for a ride in the car. She had so much fun at the barn, she slept the whole car ride home and then most of the evening. So please enjoy these two cute photos of her to finish off this post.

What's Up Wednesday

 

I wish I had lots of exciting things to report on! But alas. It's October. Or as I like to call it, "Just Try to Survive Your Rides" season. 

Some call it Autumn I guess too

I believe in being proactive though. So in an effort to make my rides more pleasant, I have changed the jump course to make it... I dunno... safer? Maybe? I realized that the last time I changed the course I set everything on some kind of diagonal line. Which meant that I was always heading toward something scary or directly away from something scary. (According to my idiot horses anyway.) So for this new course, I set more fences on the long sides/quarter lines and less angled at all the monsters. I also made sure that everything could be jumped heading toward the barn, because that makes for the less likely scenario of me being spun off on landing. (That particular piece of PTSD courtesy of my old horse Jasper.) I actually really like the new course and look forward to setting it again next summer when things are safer and I can fully enjoy it. 

You may be wondering why my horses are all so crazy. We all know it's partially due to the neighbor (he's been a real piece of work lately). And the falling temps. But beyond that it varies by equine. Al hates wind, and it's windy every day of late. Eros isn't overly fond of the shadows changing. Now that the sun doesn't get as high in the sky, the ring looks very different to him (he has poor eyesight in one eye). Plus the wind means the shadows MOVE! Yikes! Shiny's actually not crazy at all. She's just excessively ornery. But I think she's due for some vet work. I'm making her wait until we move for the winter though. It's easier to get an appointment over there and it's only a few more weeks anyway. 

Anyway, let's chat about the week in horses! We'll start with the current elephant in the room: Al. 

Al has mildly lost his mind... Not completely, just partially. Hopefully it grows back. His quarter crack has been bothering him again, which means lighter work, and he's just not getting enough stimulation I don't think. But since (as mentioned earlier) I like to be proactive, I've also started him on some ulcer guard. He's just been very anxious and unsettled so it can't hurt to assume it could be ulcers. It's hard to say for sure if it's helping because at the same time I started it, the weather turned better. But whatever the cause, he's slightly less feral the last few days. 

I spoke with my farrier about the crack so he came out Monday. Al was doing great in the bar shoes with pads but right about the three week mark, things went south again. My farrier and I decided we should try him barefoot for a bit and see if Mother Nature will do a better job healing him than we are. When he pulled the shoes off, I was amazed to see that the area that had been floated was already back to even with the rest of his foot. Which is why it was bothering him again. The little bit of extra room from the cut away in the pad wasn't doing enough once the hoof itself had settled back down. So the shoes are off now, and he's still quite sore. I'm not sure how long it will take for that to go away... Farrier is coming back out tomorrow just to make sure there's no infection or anything else going on. So it's super frustrating, but still, I'm confident we'll get through this. Just not sure when. And the timing sucks because I have that bit of angst about the recent unplanned ejection and I can't effectively work through it while my horse is head bobbing lame. And also insane. We're having a moment over here. Looking forward to getting past all of this! In the meantime, he is still adorable. Good thing.

Next, let's talk about lil Shiny! 

Shiny's been... fine? She's not trying to murder me, though she does spend a lot of time staring across the property line at the inconsiderate neighbor. (She dislikes him as much as I do.) But she's been very backed off this week. Really doesn't want to move off the leg and has zero interest in carrying a nice canter. And you know what's zero fun without a nice canter? Jumping! So we haven't done much of that lately. I was planning to pop her over some fences today, but I was feeling rather ambitious when I adjusted the fences and was wishing they were smaller when I discovered what kind of canter we were working with. So I opted out. We're getting some weather tomorrow, so maybe we'll try again Saturday with some smaller jumps. I'm sure Shiny would have been game to bop around, but I really prefer to set ourselves up for success. When I had cantered a couple cross rails and still didn't feel good about jumping around, I decided to listen to that little voice in my head. Tomorrow's another day, and we have nothing we urgently need to accomplish today. I think I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to follow a schedule that's really pretty arbitrary in the grand scheme of things. If we're not feeling it, and there's no show happening in two days, why push things? I'm trying to learn to roll with the punches a little better. 

Shiny's looking amazing right now though! Her dapples really come out this time of year, and having been clipped, they're just that more visible. I wish she had all these dapples all year round!

Eros, despite feeling skeptical about the shadows in the ring, has actually been quite a good boy. He tries very hard to trust me that there aren't any horse eating monsters in those shadows. He is a little distracted and sometimes I need to pony kid kick him to get his attention back... but I'll take that over being a whirling dervish any day! 

He's jumped around the old course and the new one (over the weekend and today) and has been very polite to the jumps. I do think he's also looking for a little maintenance work though. I have a four stride line set on the outside right now, and he wasn't getting down it the first couple of tries today. It's set a few feet short, so his stride is obviously not what it usually is. He doesn't feel particularly unsound to me, just a little creaky. Or maybe just too chill? Not sure. Could be the saddle. Could be a lot of things. But it's nice that he's not dragging me around like a torpedo! Whatever it is, I'm not overly worried. After I cantered a few more single fences and put my leg on out of the turn, he walked right down the line in four, not problem. So the step is there. Maybe he just needs more warm up now that it's cooler out. He's been happy and sweet, and just generally his usual self. Not sure what it is about this horse, but he just really brings me so much comfort. I love having him around. 

In doggo news, P is really starting to show her age. Some days are good and some are less good. I can't remember if I mentioned (I'm sure I did) that she had another vestibular episode a couple weekends ago. So she was on antibiotics for that which I think made her feel crummy. She finished them yesterday, so hopefully she'll be a little brighter soon. Rita's doing great though! We've been taking longer walks now that the weather is nicer and the asphalt isn't too hot for her little feet! And also, plenty of snuggles too. She's hilarious. 

And in other news, my photographer friend recommended me to one of her clients for braids for a photo shoot. So I got to do a couple manes and tails this weekend which was nice. The best part about photo shoot braids is that I can put them in during daylight hours! I always feel a little extra pressure to make them more perfect for photos though. I mean, those braids will likely end up hanging in someone's home! Gotta make them perfect! Of course, the manes weren't prepped perfectly, but I did the best I could. The tails came out beautifully though. You can always tell a tail that doesn't get braided much, and they come out so much more beautifully!

That's it from here this week. Just plugging along, waiting for Spring to roll back around!