Quick Update

Pics and an actual post to follow:

My horse has been turned into a raving, bucking idiot by icy pastures.

She also likes to tear her blankets because she is an asshole (or something - cue the Jack Sparrow "STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!")

The TSF girth is ballin' and I love it. 

Be My Valentine

So I am getting my rides in this week like a good girl!

Wednesday was miserable - SO WINDY OMG and pitch black, and freezing. I tacked the Bmonster up with her warmest quartersheet, which happens to be the one that is like a fleece lined turnout blanket - poor horse about had a heart attack walking out to the arena with it blowing EVERYWHERE like a giant scary garbage bag. I forgot to switch the lights on, too, so luckily le boyfriend was along (and armed with the steady bay mare mc foxiekins) and was able to get her to walk into the dark indoor with him to switch on the lights.

I threw Bails on the lunge and once again, a few back cracking bucks and much fancy prancercizing later, she seemed sane enough to ride. Drew spent that time jogging Foxie around in hand (adorable!) and then took over the line to lunge "his" horse. I'm very proud that he figured it out beautifully with an absolute lack of help from me and had some fun letting Foxie get some energy out. Bailey Kept It Together under saddle, and once again, I feel like an idiot because her spooking (random chunks of snow hitting the siding would spook anyone...) is controllable with inside leg to outside rein half halt to keep her straight. DUH.

I'm dumb.

We did some transitions again (which are improving) and I called it at that; I felt like her mental state was starting to unravel, and my fingers were frozen. After her lunge, Foxie got a lovely grooming (and probably a lot of treats) from le boyfriend. The only thing he hasn't gotten with horse handling is crossing blanket belly straps - which Foxie doesn't help by being a chunk.

Tonight I'm hoping that we can get in a jump school and I can put more glue on her blanket patches before it gets down into freezeville tomorrow. Ugh. My TSF girl comes tomorrow, and hopefully the temps recover on Sunday so I can go and try it out!

Until then, I'm off to draw up grids to jump tonight. 

First Ride Post Move!

We're moved! Officially! WHOO!

I had a migraine on Sunday when I was planning to go to the barn and do a deep groom/ride session on both of my mares, so I went last night. I about died from cute at the greeting Bailey gave me - Foxie even popped her head out of her stall! My babies missed me. Bailey whickered and pressed her face up against the bars of her stall like she wanted to give me a kiss. Sweet girl.

I saddled her up pretty hurriedly and noticed that she has begun shedding (ALREADY?!) so that will be delightful to deal with for the next month. Luckily I had the good foresight to lunge her - she actually back cracking, major booty air time bucked on the line for me! And bolted, and spooked, and passaged, and played and pranced and was generally a show and a half. She was nice and quiet under saddle, surprisingly and seemed happy to be back to work. She was majorly missing her collected to extended trot but she was also very nicely forward, supple and when I held my outside rein actually kept her shoulder straight. I was so happy! Half halting into spooky situations where she wants to throw the shoulder and dive to the inside and then holding her to the outside rein contact actually kept her spooks from happening, almost. I think she needs a consistent program, and some jumping time.

I filled feed, forgot my supplements (bad horse mommy!) and groomed the Fox, who is shedding like a demon, as well. So. Much. Hair. And her mane is out of control. I just want to shave the whole beastie - maybe she wouldn't be so itchy then? Foxmonster made some very happy faces while I groomed her and seemed content to have her hairy ass blanket back on. I snuck them some extra hay, desperately tried to reglue the repairs on Bailey's medium and brought her heavy home to repair, as well. I feel like I might need to hand stitch the patches on with something heavy duty, as the adhesive sucks and the edges are lifting and sticking to themselves on the patches. Hopefully I can develop a good system, as I'd rather not trash these blankets as of yet - why bother buying new ones if they will just get torn and repaired, too?! Hopefully they hold up for the time being and I can get my repairing on this summer, when it's a little more tolerable to sit in the garage and sew blankets.

My plan for the rest of the week is to be opportunistic and set jumps when I can (note to self, bring jump saddle) and hopefully hop on the Fox monster. They both need good groomings and some attention paid to their manes, too. It's time to get back into the swing of things for showing this summer!

The Straight And Narrow

I have always felt like I've had trouble capturing Bailey's shoulder while riding. When I got her, she was (or so it seemed) about as wide as a piece of paper, especially compared to the behemoth
of a Thoroughbred I was used to. This is an awful picture, but a) PICTURES and b) you can kind of see how narrow BB is here - she's slim and deep, and sometimes its hard for my legs (MY LEGS, all 35 inch inseam of them) to find flank.

Bailey was pretty good for our ride last night, despite a 17 year old in a bobcat buzzing all over the farm (seriously, I didn't know bobcats went that fast) and even doing a very scary drag back from the arena door which about gave both of us a heart attack. It snowed a few inches, and the roads were a mess, so I didn't ride long. I'm also being sympathetic and lusting after the new girth, in hopes that it allows me to be more precise in my saddle fitting. Mostly I wanted to fart around in the arena so BB could stretch her legs, switch the horses back to their heavy blankets before it got down to -9 and go home.

I was frustrated because she wanted to bend out and stare at the walls (because she could hear the bobcat buzzing and needed to, I don't know, make sure it didn't come through the wall?) and even when I got her to give and bend in - because she holes up her mouth when she's staring at something - I still felt like I was posting on the wrong diagonal because her body was bent out. It got better when I got very proactive about holding my outside rein, and therefore her shoulder, straight with contact. Shes' so sneaky about talking me into letting go of the rein, and I finally took the rein, and wrapped it forward and back through my fingers like a loop to force me to HOLD it. Then, of course, I had a horse going straight, but with no impulsion (alas, I forgot my whip!) and very heavy in my hands. I'm wondering if a school in the pelham would give me a flavor for a bit I can school in for a few weeks to get her light in my hands. She's not Foxie, by any means (20 lbs of pressure to get her to think about yielding her mouth) but she's frustrating because if my reins are short enough to handle the looky moments, she curls under, and if they're long enough that I can even her head out and lift her poll with my hands, she's behind the leg, and can blow me off when she chooses  to look at whatever.

I think part of her issues are that she's finally discovering that she's not very strong. She falls out of the canter like she's green broke because she can't/won't sit down and push through the transition, and she's particularly badly balanced when she's straight and isn't allowed to motor through turns.

Thursday, I'm tempted to start her in side reins and either get on and ride, or long line her to see if I can work on the issue from the ground, and then ride Foxie. And then, once we're moved, it will be back to regularly scheduled riding programming. I'd love to get more jumping in as I feel like that is a place we're making progress, and also I feel like it's a good, tiring reward for doing all the dressage we've been doing.

So, I at least have a plan, pending freezing temps and general exhaustion. So I will leave any readers with this lovely photo:

The saddle is up against her shoulder blade. Billets are unfortunately curved since, ya know, I've been trying to mask a problem. Now we see why my saddle slips forward. SIGH.