End of January Blahs

First off, many thanks for your pelleted bedding experiences; I think I will buy a bag to try next time I'm on that end of town, and see how it works for Bizzy, in particular. I paid 6$ a bale of shavings at my feed store the other day, so I'm already looking forward to the "save for shavings but don't use them" period, also known as warmer weather. I can't wait to dump the idiots outside for good!

Depressing reality: it's still cold as balls.

The majority of this week has been eaten up in work stress and because we're hosting the Super Bowl blocks from my usual downtown workplace, I've failed to leave the house the entire week other than to run to the feed store. We're tragically low on human food supplies around the house, though, so I guess I have to venture out today, now that it's -5 and I can't find other things to do.

Before the temps dropped delightfully over night, I managed to get a quick ride in with Arya Wednesday afternoon. She permitted me to walk up and halter her for a couple of cookies and hardly any need to bribe her with jealousy (though the others got cookies anyways because I'm a pushover) and stood nicely in the cross ties to be groomed and tacked, despite the fact that the "warmer" weather was a quite windy, cloudy afternoon in the low twenties. I've been thinking a lot about saddle fit and Arya's conformation as of late, and decided to try her out in the Deauville, the flex tree, foam panel AP saddle I've been low key trying to get rid of for like... three years now. 

It's not bad looking, it's just also not black and brown.

It's not a bad saddle, but it never felt right on Bailey, who has been my primary ride for most of that time. It worked well on Foxie, and I have a feeling it will fit Bizzy, but it's just such a dressage-y AP saddle that I don't have a ton of love for it. Well, the straight but not straight flaps are only part of my issue with it; my main annoyance is the fact that it has the shortest billets, possibly EVER. The billets are the reason Arya only got lunged last weekend; they're so short they are tough to adjust and it's always a chore to find a girth that works. 

Saddle resignation aside, I slapped some stirrups and a girth extender on that thing, and saddled up. We lunged (at a trot) and it was uneventful and short, because the ground is frozen and Arya didn't seem willing to exert herself. I swung up into the saddle and got my stirrups set, and off we went. We started out right, because that's harder, and just walked and walked and walked until she was bending and softening her body. We did the same left (though it was basically instant) and did some trotting and cantering that direction as well. Saddle wise, she didn't protest, which was refreshing. I need to shim up the front as I felt really off balance the whole ride, but the saddle itself doesn't seem too offensive. Is it the short points? The flex? The memory foam? Who knows. But I guess I'll keep trying it until the horse starts giving me some real saddle feedback. 

Can we not?

Going back right after our relatively great ride going left, she continues to just hell-or-high-water throw her inside shoulder at me down the road side of my riding ring. I don't know if she thinks she's spooking at the tall grass buried by snow that probably does contain some kind of terrifying animal, or if she's  just an asshole on that side for reasons, I've noticed it in previous rides and it really seemed to be the trigger for the rude behavior. She has a little routine of throwing the shoulder, counter bending to the outside and then either stopping and refusing to move (and then throwing herself around when I pony-club kick her) or refusing to be bent back to the inside and ends up circling, nearly falling over or slipping or otherwise being a petulant child. I toyed with her and she can go up the center line, and quarter line just fine, but ask her to get within, say, 6 feet of the rail and she's back to being bananas. 

In our lunging session last weekend, I asked her to step away from me with her shoulders, which she can do all day one direction, and turns into a stone wall the other. The same issue happens under saddle - she can kind of spiral and move away from leg pressure going left, but right I just get neck wiggles and a barrel and body that is resolutely still going left in it's shape and balance. So I obviously have a fun training project for the rest of the winter, and am still trying to decide if I want to spend money on chiro. It's difficult to know if any of the tack changes I've made actually do anything for her; her mouth seems quieter in the new bridle and bit, but it had been really improving before the change. Other than her tantrums seeming... smaller? Saddles don't really seem to change her attitude or way of going substantially; she swishes her tail a ton when being ridden, and I can never figure out if it's due to discomfort or due to her general attitude. I am riding to not inspire confrontation at this point, so it's hard to really say. It's just too slippery to get into a fight at anything faster than a walk, and so things are just easier to deal with and resolve, because we're walking.

Speaking of slippery, apparently we are in for some snow, and then a slow warming trend so I'll be running out to throw salt on the driveway, my path to the barn and the arena so maybe I can salvage my arena (and not slide backwards with my brakes on waiting for the garage door to open). Work is never done!