Riding has continued along the status quo - we've had a freakish warmup to the 40's lately, and I was lucky enough to get out of the indoor on Saturday and yesterday to ride outside.
Saturday:
It was quiet Saturday morning even though I was late-ish due to feed buying and grocery shopping. More about the feed later. I got the B tacked up and we headed to the indoor since it was windy. Approximately 5 minutes of herp-derp spooking because the idiots constructing the lounge addition onto the arena (which is still a wood skeleton of a building) already cut the wall open in places, which rattles terribly in the wind, we went outside after all.
I set up "The Mercedes" which is a Y shaped jump exercise I found on facebook. Bailey enjoyed spooking at me and the jump standards and the poles while staring at the people who were unloading two new horses into a quarantine pen. We got some good jumping in - only one knock down the whole ride, and the horse was bold, too forward and actually took a few longer spots despite having long feet that kept picking up snowballs. I was thankful for my running martingale, because doofus was feeling good in a "I fling my face in your face" kind of way a la last year:
Super cute, no? She finally settled and was good, and I quit while I was ahead, though she wasn't even remotely sweaty. I tried using a flash strap to make a Ralph Hill style kineton-thing to try and get a half halt or some brakes, but that just made the head flinging and steering issues so much worse, so once I pulled that crap off of her and got her to a place I was happy with, we were done. I should have stopped and swapped her over to a waterford or something, but I just rode through it wishing Christmas or my birthday would get here faster (I have it on good authority I'm getting a slow twist dee ring for one of those) so I had more brakes in my arsenal.
I then got on and roaded the Fox for about 15-20 minutes and then did some arena work for another 15 or so. I can tell she hasn't been out in too long just from that ride; she kept trying to turn around and go home when I was messing with my girth, and while it took her some time, she finally got back to business and into the swing of things after a rough few minutes.
Roading Foxie is the best - she cruises along with about 6 gears of canter/gallop and once she got back into the routine (it took her about 10 minutes) she found her usual roading trot back, which is this stretched out, nose poking out mega trot. She trucks along like the beast she is, and it's lovely. I actually got her sweaty, though we spend the majority of our last 20 minutes under saddle walking. She was totally coated in gravel road spray from galloping, but was very happy with herself when we were done.
Monday:
The girls got their feet done, so I automatically tossed Fox back out in the pasture without lunging her or anything. Bailey wasn't so lucky...
The riding instructor at the barn stole the straight bottom of my Y excercise so we had a V instead - I had an inkling to road the B after a few good jumps, but she totally ruined that plan after doing about 10 minutes of relatively ok flatwork. Someone spooked up a huge amount of Canadian Geese who were honking and circling for what felt like FOREVER while Bailey quietly and ridiculously lost her mind over, and over, and over. She had done great ground work before our ride, and while her work pre-spook wasn't spectacular (someone is getting whiny and lays on the bit between "I AM OUTSIDE AND I FEEL GOOD" moments of head flinging joy) the spook itself was ridiculous. I couldn't get her to loosen or relax her neck, I hardly could get her attention, and she wanted to passage. Or bolt. Or stop and stare. But walking or trotting was TOO MUCH. When I finally got some semblance of steering back and kinda-sorta had brakes I started jumping her, wondering if jumps would make her focus. We jumped and circled and changed direction a billion times, and she was still looking out of the arena and blowing me off every opportunity she had. I didn't have a half halt, I couldn't turn her shoulders easily and I certainly couldn't get her to fix her freaking lead while she obnoxiously cantered around on two different leads.
So I made her gallop for like 10 whole minutes.
The majority of the time she was bent out and being a total asshole, but then she got tired, and I made her keep going and suddenly she was straight and carrying herself and actually acting like a horse. Normally I would quit, because she was acting pathetic and tired and was puffing and stretching.
But I made her jump some more, and it was lovely. We didn't have the snow factor this time, but with the V instead of the Y I was able to play with a tight little roll back and was mostly able to keep the impulsion, while also throwing her at jumps crooked and on angles and she never could anticipate where I was going to send her, but she was a good little muffin and went out and did work. She did have a tendency to land on her right lead (the lead towards the geese flying field area) over the smaller of the two jumps, but in general she was half halting, coming back to me, and was actually looking for me to set her up and tell her where to jump from. I wasn't really trying to play with the spot or go for long or short, I just kind of worked with what I was getting since most of my consciousness was taken up by how much my ass and thighs are not in shape for this sort of crap at all, much less two rides in a row.
But by the end, the red horse was tired, and while she stopped and wanted to look at the indoor when we walked past, I could just kick her forward vs. having to worry about her twanging herself into the fence, or otherwise freaking out.
So I'll take it.
Other quick news: the girls are trying out a new feed - Purina Equine Senior Active. My current mix (Ultiumx Strategy Healthy Edge) is 12% protein and 10% fat, and the new feed is 14% protein and 10% fat with the same calorie per lb value and nearly the same NSC, but without me having to hand scoop 200 lbs into their cans every 22 days. I'm hoping it agrees with them, and that the protein doesn't make Bailey hotter. I'm not too worried about Fox - she looks spectacular right now since Drew has been lunging her back into a topline, and I'm hoping the extra protein helps give Bails the muscle definition I'm looking for.
We also got a second tack trunk, since I was getting REALLY REALLY tired of playing tack trunk tetris every ride trying to fit crap into it, while still having to store a lot of stuff in my car. Second tack trunk is AWESOME and I am so happy I spent the money (technically, I replaced my show trunk and demoted the show trunk to barn duty). I can now fit coolers/quarter sheets in and actually find things in my trunks - and I probably have room to spare for an extra bridle or two so I can have brake options for the B. Note to self - get the waterford out of the trailer and onto a bridle!
I already have Foxie's lunging bridle (sans reins and noseband) which is a Dr. Bristol Boucher, but the last time I used that it didn't do much for Bails and I. The waterford was too much for her last year (though we will be trying it again) and thus, I'm hoping that the slow twist D will give me a bit of extra steering and brakes without her being too reactive/over stimulated like she gets with a curb chain/pelham, faux kineton or, I am guessing, a pair of sliding gag cheeks. Bailey is a much trickier animal to bit than Foxie - Fox was easy! It probably helped that I had trainers loaning me bits at that point, but hopefully I won't have to buy too many to find what I am looking for.
Anyhoo, I am going to go and bemoan my hips, thighs, knees and butt which are all currently too sore for words.
No comments:
Post a Comment