Happy December everyone! It's my favorite time of the year.... the holiday season!!
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| Say cheeeeeeeeeeeeeese |
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Dylan October Goals:
1) Continue hacking out 1-2x a week!
Success! I hacked out once every week around the neighborhood. And I will continue to do it!
Success! I hacked out once every week around the neighborhood. And I will continue to do it!
2) Continue trailering to WD, 2-3x a week if possible
Not as much of a success as I was hoping - with the busy first two weeks of the month, and the last week of the month which was nothing but pouring rain, I only got to trailer out a few times during that middle week. Not enough!
Not as much of a success as I was hoping - with the busy first two weeks of the month, and the last week of the month which was nothing but pouring rain, I only got to trailer out a few times during that middle week. Not enough!
3) Continue working on my own strength in the saddle!
Success! It is taking me a long time, but I feel better every time I ride. Slow and steady... very slow, really. It's taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, but it's all upward progress.
Success! It is taking me a long time, but I feel better every time I ride. Slow and steady... very slow, really. It's taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, but it's all upward progress.
4) Contact the local trainer of my choice - ask about upcoming lessons!
Haven't done this yet - but I expect I will this month. I am now finally able to make it through 45-60 minutes of fairly high activity riding, so I feel like I soon will be able to make it through a full lesson without fainting/barfing/falling off my horse! I do have a trainer picked though!
Haven't done this yet - but I expect I will this month. I am now finally able to make it through 45-60 minutes of fairly high activity riding, so I feel like I soon will be able to make it through a full lesson without fainting/barfing/falling off my horse! I do have a trainer picked though!
5) Continue working on the show schedule, which memberships I need to renew, get a calendar together, and plan which things I will need to replace
This one was a bit hit and miss - mostly because I realized there is no way I am going to be ready to show in January. It was an ambitious goal - I seriously overestimated my ability to get back in riding shape, especially with my bad leg. It's HARD! It gets better every time but I am still in a LOT of pain. I plan on working on this again this coming month.
This one was a bit hit and miss - mostly because I realized there is no way I am going to be ready to show in January. It was an ambitious goal - I seriously overestimated my ability to get back in riding shape, especially with my bad leg. It's HARD! It gets better every time but I am still in a LOT of pain. I plan on working on this again this coming month.
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Dylan November Goals:
1) Continue hacking out 1-2x a week!
2) Continue trailering to WD, 2-3x a week if possible
3) Continue working on my own strength in the saddle!
4) Contact the local trainer of my choice - ask about upcoming lessons!
5) Continue working on the show schedule, which memberships I need to renew, get a calendar together, and plan which things I will need to replace
O November Goals:
1) Continue driving 1x a week 2-4 miles to keep fitness up through the winter!
2) IF POSSIBLE: if ground is dry enough, drive in the pasture. It's still winter and show season is a ways off, but if we can do a bit of dressage and cones here and there, that will be very helpful!
P/Darby Goals:
1) Thoroughly groom 1x a week! And spoil!
Pax/Uma Goals:
1) Leading/grooming 1x a week!
O November Goals:
1) Continue driving 1x a week 2-4 miles to keep fitness up through the winter!
2) IF POSSIBLE: if ground is dry enough, drive in the pasture. It's still winter and show season is a ways off, but if we can do a bit of dressage and cones here and there, that will be very helpful!
P/Darby Goals:
1) Thoroughly groom 1x a week! And spoil!
Pax/Uma Goals:
1) Leading/grooming 1x a week!
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During the summer, when I was feeding grainfoods to all the girls, I had goals for all of them weight-wise - keeping O fit for show season, putting weight back on skinny Darby, and fitting up Pax and P for inspection. Every day I brushed them while they were all tied up eating. Now, all of them are pulled off grainfoods and just eating hay 24/7. They all look awesome - shiny and in perfect weight. I don't see any reason that any of them need any more than they are currently getting. O is currently in off-season work, P is still nursing Pax a bit but still looks awesome, Darby looks 10 years younger than she actually is, and the babies look wonderful - I was hoping pulling Pax off the grainfoods would slow her growth a bit. She is still growing steadily and evenly, and she looks wonderful, so I think we're on target there. As we get back around into spring, I'm sure this will all change again.
Anyway, the point of ALLLLL of that was that since the mares don't get tied up every day to eat anymore, they do not get groomed every day. So therefore, the retired mares and the babies are on the goals list - they get groomed and/or worked with 1x a week. They all get loved on and played with every day, but they all get a good going over at least once a week with grooming tools.
I also need to make some more concrete plans about under what circumstances I will insist that I need to go riding. When it is dark out and late, I have no motivation to go trailer out. When it is pouring out, I have no motivation to get soaked catching, grooming, and loading Dylan in the muck and mire. We don't have a barn here, so I tie and tack up at my trailer like I always do - maybe someday I will get fancy and put in a better grooming station here, but since I have done this for so long it seems quite normal to me. I have A LOT of other projects that need to be done here before I ever get that far!
Speaking of projects, we've just come out of our worst rainstorm yet, and there is nothing like a really bad weather event to show off all the negatives of a property. We are on a hill, which I thought would be great for rainwater runoff... but I was wrong. Dylan's pasture is quite fine - a little mucky in the area where he likes to hang out most, but quite fine otherwise, and it will dry fairly fast. The mares' pasture, however, is a TOTAL sloppy pigpen. They love to stand down at the bottom of the hill and just wallow in their own filth. While O, Uma, and Pax all like to get out of the mud and go up the hill to play and eat anything they find up there, Darby and P just don't give a crap and refuse to leave where they are most of the time. The solution to this is to design something better - to turn my pasture into a paddock paradise. There is SO much interesting and varied terrain up the hill - loads of rocks, interesting plants, etc. But the high traffic areas have turned to total sludge with 11" of rain, and even now, several days later, there is standing water and mud up to my mid-calf in some places near the haybags. That's just not gonna cut it for me.
There is no way to do anything when there is this much mud around - hell, there's no way I could get a truck in there to dump some footing, much less footing that won't be turned right under into the mud anyway - so I think my best bet at the moment is just to move the haybags all over the place. Put them up the hill, put them in the back part of the pasture, hang them from trees, etc.... put them in different places. My main trouble with this is Darby - I don't think she is quite mobile enough to water back and forth, up and down the hill all the time. She does hop up and down the rocky embankments with surprising agility though, so perhaps I am wrong there.... I guess there is only one way to find out! She is getting around like gangbusters as of late, so who knows. I never thought she would live this long, but she's still going strong!
There is thankfully 0 forecasted rain in the next 10 days, so hopefully we have a chance to dry out...!
During the summer, when I was feeding grainfoods to all the girls, I had goals for all of them weight-wise - keeping O fit for show season, putting weight back on skinny Darby, and fitting up Pax and P for inspection. Every day I brushed them while they were all tied up eating. Now, all of them are pulled off grainfoods and just eating hay 24/7. They all look awesome - shiny and in perfect weight. I don't see any reason that any of them need any more than they are currently getting. O is currently in off-season work, P is still nursing Pax a bit but still looks awesome, Darby looks 10 years younger than she actually is, and the babies look wonderful - I was hoping pulling Pax off the grainfoods would slow her growth a bit. She is still growing steadily and evenly, and she looks wonderful, so I think we're on target there. As we get back around into spring, I'm sure this will all change again.
Anyway, the point of ALLLLL of that was that since the mares don't get tied up every day to eat anymore, they do not get groomed every day. So therefore, the retired mares and the babies are on the goals list - they get groomed and/or worked with 1x a week. They all get loved on and played with every day, but they all get a good going over at least once a week with grooming tools.
I also need to make some more concrete plans about under what circumstances I will insist that I need to go riding. When it is dark out and late, I have no motivation to go trailer out. When it is pouring out, I have no motivation to get soaked catching, grooming, and loading Dylan in the muck and mire. We don't have a barn here, so I tie and tack up at my trailer like I always do - maybe someday I will get fancy and put in a better grooming station here, but since I have done this for so long it seems quite normal to me. I have A LOT of other projects that need to be done here before I ever get that far!
Speaking of projects, we've just come out of our worst rainstorm yet, and there is nothing like a really bad weather event to show off all the negatives of a property. We are on a hill, which I thought would be great for rainwater runoff... but I was wrong. Dylan's pasture is quite fine - a little mucky in the area where he likes to hang out most, but quite fine otherwise, and it will dry fairly fast. The mares' pasture, however, is a TOTAL sloppy pigpen. They love to stand down at the bottom of the hill and just wallow in their own filth. While O, Uma, and Pax all like to get out of the mud and go up the hill to play and eat anything they find up there, Darby and P just don't give a crap and refuse to leave where they are most of the time. The solution to this is to design something better - to turn my pasture into a paddock paradise. There is SO much interesting and varied terrain up the hill - loads of rocks, interesting plants, etc. But the high traffic areas have turned to total sludge with 11" of rain, and even now, several days later, there is standing water and mud up to my mid-calf in some places near the haybags. That's just not gonna cut it for me.
There is no way to do anything when there is this much mud around - hell, there's no way I could get a truck in there to dump some footing, much less footing that won't be turned right under into the mud anyway - so I think my best bet at the moment is just to move the haybags all over the place. Put them up the hill, put them in the back part of the pasture, hang them from trees, etc.... put them in different places. My main trouble with this is Darby - I don't think she is quite mobile enough to water back and forth, up and down the hill all the time. She does hop up and down the rocky embankments with surprising agility though, so perhaps I am wrong there.... I guess there is only one way to find out! She is getting around like gangbusters as of late, so who knows. I never thought she would live this long, but she's still going strong!
There is thankfully 0 forecasted rain in the next 10 days, so hopefully we have a chance to dry out...!
That is an obscene amount of rain.
ReplyDeleteHaha I love the up close and personal Pax snout!
ReplyDeletePax is still so dark - do you think she'll stay that color (or is it just bc she's so water logged? lol)? regardless, it's very striking with her blaze
ReplyDeleteNo I think she will stay that color! Lots of white on her legs too... Not that you can see in the mud, lol.
DeletePax is growing up so lovely!!
ReplyDeleteVery pretty ponies!
ReplyDeleteSuch gorgeous horses and Pax looks so cute in her little blanket :-)
ReplyDeleteI hate mud!! Spreading the hay bags out is probably a good idea for all the time. Horses are lazy and if everything is in one spot why would they move around lol! I haven't been grooming as much as I should either. Maybe I should do the once a week rule too...
ReplyDelete