Arya

A rather bleary-eyed Monday greeting to you all. I packed a lot of crap into my weekend and parts of last week, so let's get some updates on the books, because once again... warm weather has arrived and work has picked up so I have less time to blog than I would like. I value being able to log my life with horses, though, so here we go: 

Bailey has been out one or two times, but with tight time last week, I've been choosing to keep things consistent with Arya rather than work BB as hard. The ring is finally back in rideable shape, so I hope to jump her tonight after a few meh road sessions last week due to the ring being a quagmire. See quagmire (and hippo) below:

Can't look at Mom she's stressful

With my focus on her, Arya got caught and brought out to do groundwork more. She's still sticky in her shoulders, but we had some good sessions where she was very relaxed, and I sat on her and laid over her back 2 times during the week. We also did some bending of the head in the rope halter, but didn't move with me up. I ran to the tack store last week and sat in the new Bates Advanta (it's really cool) and bought her a fleece girth and some perfect prep. She also took the opportunity to wallow in the mud like a hippo, which, for the lack of media for all of the other exiting things we've been up to... enjoy:

Her last session of last week was a bit more of a cluster - she managed to step on her rope and scare herself a bit at the beginning, and then had to run around and be bolty, because #offended. She didn't really relax as much as she normally does, and I was not sure that I wanted J to come out with Arya in mind, because she clearly wasn't ready. She also kicked at me when I girthed her, though it seemed like an automatic reaction as she didn't react to any further girth messing with and seems to like the fleece girth more than my TSF girth.

And then J came out to visit on Saturday, and made me get on my gosh darn horse, already. 

She ground worked her while I put on my boots and chaps, and her groundwork insight was super helpful. When I showed up at the ring, Arya got tense. We're running with the theory that Arya gets overwhelmed with stimuli and that instead of giving in to my desire to love on her/fill her with cookies when she's good, I should really back her out to the distance of my choice and let her sit there and think about her life and her choices. She wanted to be with J more than she wants to be with me currently and kept trying to edge in to her, but I think it's a solid idea that I put into practice on Sunday again. So we did some ground work, and she was obedient, and I stuck her bridle over her halter and J lead and lunged us for a bit at the walk and trot while I barely held on to my reins and tried to stay relaxed. 

Our theory continued when I was up; too much stimuli, or too many questions she didn't know how to answer = tantrum. She swishes her tail at my leg, and doesn't like having her face touched, but she has to learn to deal with both. She gets flustered or mad because she trips (especially with her hind legs) and tries to launch into the canter or get silly, which hopefully will chill out over time. We kept it short and sweet, with walk and trot in both directions on the line, and a bit with me circling around J. I'd forgotten how big Arya walks; she moves like a lion with a big swing through her back and hind end. 

Everyone had naps yesterday except me, bah humbug

Sunday, I did the same thing over again. She had perfect prep on board (and I'm not sure if it was the PP or the warm day that was making her nap and caused her to be easy to walk up to and catch, for once) and we did some ground work, and then I bridled her and got on again. We didn't have a ground crew, so nothing was to be done besides ask the horse to walk off from the mounting block and off we went. We walked a lot; she likes to occasionally get tense and rush off because of  little silly things and she seems more comfortable with contact at the walk than anywhere else. At the trot we had a few issues- a few tantrums that resulted in me opening my rein to her hip and letting her spin a bit to put a lid on some leaping/accelerating ideas and some general fussiness. A few times she would go from pulling a bit on my inside rein, which was open and trying to encourage inside bend, to yanking on it like she's trying to head off into the rest of the ring, but I was able to bring her back to a safer pace and keep her on her circle without too much blood-pressure raising. I tried to keep the stressful trot to one small circle or so, and go back to walking where she can stretch and be more comfortable with her existence. 

So, yeah, I got back on her and haven't felt like I'm going to die, yet. I'd love it if she could be less offended by work in general, but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Arya gets tonight mostly off (except I want to use my new flexible curve on her to measure her weirdly shaped self) and I'll hopefully be back on her tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on schedule. I tried to even out several years worth of grown over gopher mounds in my current pasture and then seeded it to hopefully head off weeds, and now my back is a mess and I got my first sun burn of the year, so I figure... let's jump BB tonight and enjoy riding the forgiving creature in my herd vs the #mostoffended.

All of the updates

There hasn't been a lot to write about lately, but I think I finally have enough of a backlog of small news to be worth a whole post...

Apps

I've been using two apps for my horse stuff management so far, and I like both of them. I've been using HorseNotes for vet and farrier tracking, and like the aspect that lets me track the costs behind various things. I think it will really help me plan for future vet visits and budget. The application itself is a bit rough, but the online version is very usable. My one dislike, as the owner of several horses, is that I haven't figured out if I am able/how to make reports of multiple horse's vaccination records. In my frustration, I ended up creating a google sheet with similar information, and may end up abandoning HorseNotes for the most part. I like having everything in a nice app, but it may be easier for my sanity to only use Google Sheets, as I don't have to struggle with the reports then.

Bailey's Vaccination History from the app - I would suggest using the online version, but it's a good idea!

The second app I have been using is called Tally. Tally allows me to track and tally 3 items (free version) and view metrics on them, which is perfect so far for measuring hay and bedding usage. I am measuring in half bales and half bags of pellets, which is a bit annoying, but the best way to track my items. The app makes cute instrument noises when you tally something, which is amusing. It's easy to open the app and tap and while I still struggle sometimes to remember to do it, I could probably fix this with a phone reminder before bed each night.

I also still enjoy playing with Equilab, but have really inconsistent data, as some days it does not pick up the gaits at all, which denies me pretty modern art swirls. I do like being able to track my apps, and while I do miss "Track My Hack" from Woofwear, which provided less data but at least picked things up much more consistently, it's still fun to have the app when it works. I don't lose anything by turning it on, so I think I will continue to use it until something better comes along.

Arya

Arya's ground work continues to go well. I had a great session with her earlier this week and had her jumping over hay bales, which made me really happy. She is still very stuck on yeilding her shoulders and I'm struggling to find a way to explain it to her; my usual method of teaching a horse to step over works on her hind end, but I can sit and poke/tap/slowly escalate the cue on her shoulder and she just stands like a statue or backs up.

She has been less of a struggle to catch lately as well, but busted her record last night, so I had to remove all the other horses and was finally able to walk up and put her halter on with no fuss. I'm going to have to work on this every day, whether I like it or not, or I won't be able to put her out on pasture and be able to catch her. I also have spent a week being angsty about wanting to get her back under saddle and start enjoying her, and I'm hoping that with the snow finally melting I can start re-backing her safely. I have eyeballed some trainers to send her to, and have the blessing of husband to send her if I feel the need to, but I also am wondering if I just need to grow a pair and get back on the beast (perhaps with some Perfect Prep on board). Part of me thinks that I just need to get back on with someone to lead me around and stay out of her face, and try to make some tack changes to make her happier, and part of me thinks that I really need to find a way to be a more authoritative rider in general.

Other things to report with her are relatively uneventful - she's finishing her taper of Nexium this week, and I am still pretty happy with the results. She is always going to be a hot, excitable young horse, but I feel that she is easier to handle and her stall is still cleaner. Adding to her stall being cleaner, I think I am finally going to give in and move some things around in her stall this weekend. She likes to stand with her butt to the door of her stall, and I've noticed she's been eating less and less hay, so I've been hanging a hay net back where she stands... and voila, she eats more hay. This weekend I plan to move her hay hoop to the back of her stall so I don't have to deal with hay nets anymore and will move her buckets away from the door and her butt, so hopefully I have to deal with her pooping in her bucket less.

BB

Bailey and I have been slowly carving out rides on the road after trying to have a nice canter in the field last week and both of us taking a tumble in the snow due to some hidden ice that definitely wasn't there the last time we rode in the same spot. We had a great roading session a few days after the fall including some hand gallops and lots of trot work. Bailey actually feels pretty good - her buttons are all still there, and I don't think she's as out of shape as I like to pretend she is. We got hit with a blizzard last weekend, so I've been letting her sit again. This weekend we're being promised temps above 50, and I'm planning a ride this afternoon as the ring is partially melted out. Hopefully by the weekend I will have a (wet) ring back for full time riding! I'm hoping to do a light ride today to knock off the dust, and maybe do a few small jumps before the weekend is out.

Hopefully I'll have more writing-worthy items soon - I'm eager to get back on my girls and start getting back to it!

There's Probably an App for That

Hi Friends!

I haven't frozen to death, despite more snow, and then more snow... and last night, a dusting of SNOW! My favorite </sarcasm>

 

Anyways, I have been trying to keep up with my barn chore tracking, plan ahead and figure out what vaccinations my horses need (because shout out to the vet who totally gave the horses double vaccinations from their spring shots this fall, what the HECK was I thinking?!) and plan for the farrier this week.

I am, however, really bad about paper. I like paper. But I forget it exists. So my hay tracking sheet already has some question mark ridden squares because I forgot I had a tracking sheet this weekend. And it just dawned on me that there has to be a better way to do this.

So, do any of you use apps to track horse related information? I think  it's time to get high tech!

I am considering going low end and just creating another google calendar to track horse stuff, but I have so many different calendars already that it's getting kind of bulky and annoying. What I really want to track is barn related items - use of hay and bedding, putting in feed - but I also really want to track vaccinations and follow up from the vet, since that is apparently a mess, as well.

Because taking pictures of vet bills is lame

I swear I used to be able to keep track of all this stuff, but apparently I don't have room for this in my brain anymore. Am I getting old?

Maybe I just need naps.