If I was whining about being cold before, I was wrong.
Not even considering "feels like" and windchill, it's going to get fucking cold. I broke down and put Foxie in her heavy last night, and am just trying to not think about the "what ifs" like "what if she sweats and soaks her blanket". I'll check on her tomorrow, and hopefully she will be warm and comfortable with no signs of sweat. Bailey, I'm less worried about. Since she wears Foxie's old heavy, which isn't really all that heavy since it's been in service almost 10 years now. I'm almost wondering if her new Weatherbeeta Original medium would be warmer than the old, tattered thing.
We've spent the last few weeks hanging out in the dressage saddle, but now that the fitter is working on it when she can (hey, free doesn't always mean fast, but still. It's free.) we've been rocking the jump saddle on the flat and even jumped last Wednesday. I set up one super exciting fence, a 2'6 (maybe) single vertical with the very scary pony panel, simply because it was the most accessible jump I could find. I don't know if it's the continued issue of the ponies (and now the pigs, we have a pony fence AND a pig fence these days) having eyeballs, or if it was just TOO EXCITING and she couldn't even, but Bailey acted like she didn't quite know how to jump. It was awkward, I was never quite right with the motion, and we were constantly disagreeing about distances. I get not wanting to take a flier when there is a ceiling vs outside, but she definitely was keen, but not quite... on her game.
At one point, we differed on our distances enough that I managed to whap my chin on her neck, and bruised it. We did finally (kind of) get our jumping shit together, but clearly... it's probably time to work some jumping back into our routine. I realized after that she hasn't really jumped since our late fall XC schooling in October - so long ago! Hopefully that jump school knocked enough dust off that we can jump in front of someone besides barn friend J without totally embarrassing ourselves.
My next ride was my birthday ride, and I stuck to flatwork with both girls. Bailey got dressed up, because I'm a mean mom and think she looks super cute in my XC colors:
This is today. Note the "Feels like".
This is the rest of this week:
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| PRECIOUS. |
We've spent the last few weeks hanging out in the dressage saddle, but now that the fitter is working on it when she can (hey, free doesn't always mean fast, but still. It's free.) we've been rocking the jump saddle on the flat and even jumped last Wednesday. I set up one super exciting fence, a 2'6 (maybe) single vertical with the very scary pony panel, simply because it was the most accessible jump I could find. I don't know if it's the continued issue of the ponies (and now the pigs, we have a pony fence AND a pig fence these days) having eyeballs, or if it was just TOO EXCITING and she couldn't even, but Bailey acted like she didn't quite know how to jump. It was awkward, I was never quite right with the motion, and we were constantly disagreeing about distances. I get not wanting to take a flier when there is a ceiling vs outside, but she definitely was keen, but not quite... on her game.
At one point, we differed on our distances enough that I managed to whap my chin on her neck, and bruised it. We did finally (kind of) get our jumping shit together, but clearly... it's probably time to work some jumping back into our routine. I realized after that she hasn't really jumped since our late fall XC schooling in October - so long ago! Hopefully that jump school knocked enough dust off that we can jump in front of someone besides barn friend J without totally embarrassing ourselves.
My next ride was my birthday ride, and I stuck to flatwork with both girls. Bailey got dressed up, because I'm a mean mom and think she looks super cute in my XC colors:
She did some nice collection/extension work and while she was very wild at the canter, I can't quite blame her; we went from mud to frozen solid in less than 24 hours when it got cold, leaving the paddocks a nasty rutted mess. I'm hoping we got enough snow to at least pad their feet a little bit, but it's still not exactly comfortable to walk on, much less run and play. Foxie was similarly boisterous, and actually gave me a real, live buck instead of her usual back-humping-tail-wringing mess. They both managed to burn off some energy and I was happy to play and pamper and not be rushed too much.
Now that we're truly into the winter doledrums, I think it's time to start making ride plans and start working towards the spring... Might as well be an optimist!
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