Weekend Catch Up

Whale hello, Monday. You came a little too fast for my tastes.

After my #GOALS post, I was all filled up with motivation and was ready to rock and roll on my plans. Naturally, the plans went awry. I rode Thursday last week - Drew lunged Foxie while I worked with the #feralredhorse. We were cursed to the indoor arena due to a late start to the evening and the fact that the sun goes down before 6:30 now. It sucks. I hate the indoor.

At least someone had watered.

But still. It sucks. Mostly because BB does this super cute thing where she spooks at everything, all day, erry day. The doors were open, and so our usual circle turned into "spook at the crap in the corner, spook at the human door, STARE OUT THE HORSE DOOR INTO THE DARKNESS LIKE WERE IN A HORROR MOVIE". And this happened at every gait, and for basically the whole ride. Same/similar thing the other direction. Even when we're at the end of the arena with less doors, we still had the most crooked circle ever from spooking at the open door and then scooting away from it like the hounds of hell were waiting in the darkness.

I rode in dressage tack, and once we got warmed up, I was already ready to quit because I finally got her soft and somewhat listening. Luckily, the arena cleared out (another boarder finished her ride, Drew finished lunging the McSassyPants Von Fox) and we did some walk canter work, and some counter canter. The left was really, really rough - she shut down on one end of the arena and just would not make a clean upwards transition for love or money. Mostly because every time she tried, she ended up on the wrong lead, or threw her front half up in the air or otherwise just put in crappy work and I kept shutting her down to re-balance at the trot. I moved her away from the door to the middle of the arena and was able to get it (finally) though it wasn't pretty. The right was pretty good - she gave me a handful of decent walk-canters with good leap and a nice counter canter loop. We did some lateral work (which was surprisingly straight and obedient for not having practiced... basically all summer) as well on both sides and the left is definitely a problem, as is the spooking.

I'm not sure what it is about our arena that makes the red horse insane; is she bored? Is she actually scared? It's pretty much crap regardless of the junk in the corners, the door being open or closed or the presence of a calm horse. A hot horse will set her off, as will people doing abrupt weird stuff like flagging a horse back and forth in the indoor. Last time, a whip helped. She loses momentum inside - and loses it further when spooking. My spurs are pretty much a daily wear item and she honestly doesn't seem to really care unless I'm doing something weird with them. Without spurs, she's lazy and obnoxious. I'd like to transition to smaller ones (I've already transitioned back from the smaller/slightly "sharper" spurs I had been wearing all summer to my longer, but very round/soft nubs) or maybe try something with plastic rollers. The loss of momentum is in part because of the weird uneven footing in the indoor, and probably encouraged by me putting SMBs on her to try to protect her legs in the weird ass footing. 

I think, if I am not able to have a decent ride tonight, I am going to look into doing something about the spooking and the crap. Ear plugs, maybe? Calming supplement? I am going to do my very best to remember to carry my whip, though I'd love to replace it with one that is a little bouncier and has a better handle. My current whip has a narrow handle with a fancy silver end cap. Pretty - but hard to hold on to. It's also got a stiff lash, and is very stiff in general. It's great for ground work but my hands already suck and they suck further when I'm trying to figure out how to make a whip lay nicely against my hip and do more than twang my horse in the face when I try to use it. The martingale is essential supplies until next spring - I've got them on clips now which is super handy, and I might as well protect my face from the idiot's head tossing. .

Tonight's ride will be pretty quick as I have some other things I'd like to do with my evening, but I'll be more in depth come Wednesday and Friday evenings. The horsey docket also includes doing the last of the laundry I need, hopefully finally clipping bridle paths and a jump school on Sunday morning. The Fox will also get some love and attention. She is sound and sassy post trim (which is a miracle, seeing as her feet SUCK). I'm considering a particular brand of hoof oil as a possible purchase for her, and will be doing the good work to continue rebuilding and maintaining her topline muscle. I'm happy to get her back into work and feel badly that she fell off the schedule as my other priority - the show horse - took up all of my time. No more! Fox will hopefully take Drew on a trail ride yet this year and will play all winter with riding and lunging. 

We'll see you later on this week.