Riding Riding Riding

It seems so weird and exciting to say this, but I've been riding a LOT lately, and not just on Dylan. I have been riding him of course, obviously, but I also have been riding Frank,and the other day I had a wild hair and decided to saddle up O herself and see what happened. Yes, O!

Dylan is a good boy

I've been feeling really physically good lately, like my leg is mostly functional and mostly pain free. I know this sounds completely stupid, but I've been able to post lately... post! Posting is a big deal. I haven't been able to post at all in maybe 3 YEARS because it would leave me completely crippled. When you can post, you can deal with greener horses. I could get around it before with Dylan because I could warmup in walk and canter, and then move to sit the trot, but it's only because he's advanced enough for that. (Now that I can post though, our warmups are so much better because I can really get him stretching and loose.) But I've been sort of thinking about O and wanting to get her back into a bit of work without the risk of having a baby jumping into a carriage with us - and maybe wanting to try some WE with her too. I've thought about it in the past and she might not handle it well, but Intro level is pretty simple walk and trot stuff. Maybe we could give it a try!

O has not been ridden in nearly 3 years though, save for one or two hacks here and there. She was actively driving up until June last year, but hasn't been in work at all since then. Dylan and Cregga FREAKED when I pulled her out, and she did wiggle and scream for them some, but she also ate from her haybag and stood to be groomed and tacked. I picked the trusty ol' bloo bit for her, took her back out to the field, and hopped on. 

And she was perfect. I feel like my defensive habit of getting stuck in chair seat with my lower leg pushed forward has been steadily evaporating, and she was happy to let me put my leg on her. She's so NARROW compared to Dylan... like riding a wobbly broomstick versus a thick sturdy sequoia. Riding him has made me so very aware of every little movement. 

I think it's time to put her back to work. 

Cregga not happy that mom was out and about... here she is about to run into the water trough

Y U TAKE AWAY MAM

I've also been back on Frank after a hiatus off of him. I hadn't ridden him all last month just because I've been too busy, and it's been raining constantly. I hopped on him the other day and took Pax for a drag around - the first time I had done something with her since her last show in April.

GOOGLE EYES

Despite what that last picture suggest, she was amazing. She was still very jiggy and hot and spooky the last time I took her out, but her two in hand shows really seem to have made an impression on her. She was completely cool and calm. And since she felt so collected and Frank felt so good, I think it's entirely possible that when the weather cooperates they'll be more than ready to go on off property trails together. 

And last but certainly not least, Dylan has been going great under saddle. Here's a clip from our latest lesson with Louisa - the exercise we were doing was renvers to a 10m circle to shoulder in down the long side, then medium across the diagonal, to really activate the hind end. As you can see it pretty clearly worked!

When he's not in lessons, he goes for hacks...

That mane.... :/

And rides at WD of course.

Tiiiiiired

He's going great. I'm feeling better and better, and starting to ride less like a weeble and more like a proper person again. It takes so much time and effort, but I am getting there. I am getting there!

Since I decided I should give WE a try with O, I decided I should also break Dylan to drive. What do you think?

Tre(s) Bien

Now that Tre is here, O (much to my surprise) looks like a perfect angel compared to her. Not that Tre is naughty.... I just don't know her and don't know what to expect from her all the time. I look back at O and how horrible she was that first week that I brought her home (thrashing around in the crossties, dragging me around, trying to kill me under saddle with no steering and brakes... you know the drill. She was just AWFUL!), and look at her now, and can't really believe how far she has come. She's just SO cool about everything!
I try every ride to incorporate a little dressage into everything that we do. This is a great payoff for both of us - we don't have to sacrifice fun for training, or training for fun, because we get to do both at the same time! For example: last night, we went to one of the local barrel races. S is DESPERATE to get O running (and to be honest, she'd be really good at it!), so I exhibitioned her for fun. She is patterned on the barrels, so she went trotting into the huge scary coliseum all by herself, saw the first barrel, and got right to it. (She's actually only ever seen the blue barrels before... these were brightly colored pop up barrels, but she didn't care!) The footing was very deep, so she fumbled around the third a little bit, but came galloping on home like she had been doing it her whole life. Once we were finished, we did some nice w/t work and ended on that.
Another example: last week we hacked down the road for awhile, and then decided to go check the neighbor's cows. O used to be VERY afraid of the cows, but has since gotten used to them and quite enjoys chasing them around now. S and I pushed the lot of them (41 cows/calves) into the holding pen, pushed them back out, drove them down to the stock pond, pushed them around the stock pond, and pushed them back up and into the pen again. O is more than happy to chase down breakaway calves, keep everyone together, and even run at the cranky old bull. And the best part is that we are doing dressage while we are working the cattle! Everybody wins.

(Be proud... I resisted the urge to roach it and just pulled it instead!)

Tuesday, after a week of groundwork and walking over poles and up hills, I finally got on Miss Tre. I made sure S was around (because you just never know), but she was perfectly quiet for tacking and mounting. I walked around in the small pen for awhile, trotted a lap or two around to see how she feels (she feels a little weak all over but sound), and stood for awhile while mounted. She was perfectly quiet and agreeable. S hopped up on her big yellow horse bareback, and we went for a lap around the top part of the field (where ideally I'll be doing most of her rehab/legging up). She was forward and broke to the trot once, but behaved herself otherwise. S needed to go grab something from the barn, so I stayed up where we had been riding while she rode him away. And Tre.... Tre did not appreciate this. She pitched a little hissy fit and spent a few minutes fussing. She finally settled down into a figure-8 pattern at the walk, and was actually quite good from then on. Not exactly how I had planned on our first ride going, but there you go! In her defense, I don't know that she has ever been ridden alone, she has not been in work for several months, and she assuredly has limited out-of-arena time. It was kind of a lot of ask of her! I think she just needs more miles. I'll be riding her down closer to the barn for a little while just to get her going, and then when S gets back from being away, we'll start toodling on the trails some. (Or I will pony her off of O, but O does not like that much!)

I was going to do a lot of tackwalking to get Tre going, but honestly, the horse is sound. She looks great! She is ready to roll and she looks better and better every day. The more she moves around outside - the more she walks and eats and relaxes - the better she gets. Better and better and better! I decided to start lunging her lightly and keep an eye on her movement, but she honestly just looks GREAT.

Here's a quickie link to a video her Tre lunging yesterday!



And today, I decided to put the Faux-ssoa on... and she was even BETTER!

JEEZ. Pretty mare, no?

Pretty, pretty mare. 

Happiness and nomnoms for all. 

Redheads

It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that redheaded mares are a total trip.

Seriously though, I am really enjoying my little firecracker. She shares some similarities with Gogo, which I of course love, but has her own flair for the dramatic. She requires a very tactical ride, but she is showing so much promise in a very short time. I've only had her a month, after all! 

I'm definitely glad I decided to give the neck stretcher a try. I'm not really a gadget person, but there are some situations where certain things can be very useful. O's evasions under saddle include pretty much everything she can think of (that isn't overtly naughty) to avoid going straight and forward in a decent rhythm - tosses her head, grabs the bit and roots outwards, blasts forward, slows way down and gets way behind the leg, turns her head one way, turns her head the other way, and goes sideways. None of it is outrageously naughty, and none of it is nearly as dramatic as it sounds - if she's doing all of that at a trot, she's still just trotting along, not bucking and leaping and plunging or doing anything dangerous. I don't think she has ever learned to balance herself anywhere outside of an arena, and she motorbikes on turns as well as snowballs like crazy when going down hills. As she was a jumper in her past life, she may not really have ever been ridden that extensively outside of an arena, so it isn't really surprising. She can turn on a dime, I will say that much - I found that out when testing out a one-rein stop on her when she tried grabbing the bit and park-trotting off. She did a literal reining spin at the blink of an eye! She is only 15.1hh after all - she looks, feels, moves and rides like a MUCH bigger horse but she is so coupled that she can really sit down and get things done. (I SWORE she was a solid 16hh, until I finally got around to sticking her... yep, she's a shrimp!)

To help give her some stability, and to allow her a little more freedom at the same time, I set her up with the neck stretcher. This particular one is actually a neck stretcher modified with some chambon pieces from one of the ones Gogo broke a few years ago, and can be assembled as a chambon as well - just run the bungees up through the crownpiece and down to the bit as opposed to running them from the bit to the crownpiece, and voila! In this case, I needed something to keep her from tossing her head around in every which direction, so I went with the neck stretcher. 

It does not restrict her normal head carriage in any way, hold her head down, crank her in, make her break over too far back, or any of those things that neck stretchers can occasionally do. Since it is elastic, she can still definitely raise her head PLENTY high if she wants to. You can see that she is still in front of the vertical and comfortable:

It looks taut but it isn't. It's near the end range of its length but it isn't engaged. She is more than happy to plop along on the end of the lunge line wearing this, quiet and calm. 

Since she has such difficulty maintaining balance on turns and on inclines/declines, I decided to move our work today up to the top of the pasture, where it is totally flat and where S's husband has mowed a path all along the fenceline (so we can see the freaking SNAKES if they are out). Flat, straight lines can work magic for a horse like this, so I expect we'll be up there for awhile! This was the first time I had ridden her away from the barn area - we don't have an arena, and she was totally nutty when you took her away from her mares (or vice versa) at first... thankfully, she has gotten over that. This is also the first time I have ridden her alone, which is a big step - you have to be able to deal with being alone when you are an eventer, and even if you aren't an eventer, you have to deal with being alone when you are MY horse, period! She stepped up to the plate, walking along with interest, looking at things but not acting spooky or concerned. When she did spook (only once), she jumped a little, but kept walking on. Very promising!

We only did walk-trot work today, which is quite enough for this stage. She started off a little cranky and balky for a few strides (making somewhat disgruntled ears), but moved forward smartly with a cluck and didn't give me any attitude again. She like to compress herself, get behind the leg, and hold all her tightness in her back, so getting her to release her back and move forward into a contact takes some convincing. In a lot of ways, it is similar to how Gogo would hold herself until she warmed up and released herself, so I am well-versed in feeling the subtleties of back tension. O, like Gogo, is not one that you can knock around until they  give in - she requires a lot of subtlety and a lot of constant redirection ("No, this length of rein. No, this speed. No, this speed. No, we're going straight. No, at this speed. At this speed. This length of rein. Straight. This speed. This speed. Straight."). When everything comes together, she takes a contact, releases her back, stretches out, and moves freely along. She gave me some very nice moments... some VERY nice moments. Every ride gets a little bit better and a little better.

The ladies all need a trim tomorrow... I love pedicure day! 

O Goes to School

I am happy to report that I am somewhat, more or less, on the mend, and am back in the saddle on a partly limited basis. The one getting the most focus this week has been O, but everyone has been working and all have been doing well - actually, P-mare has been the most obnoxious and belligerent of them all. She got reminded several times that she is almost 17 year old, damnit, and that she ought to be acting more her age!

Monday, O-Ren got a walk-trot ride, P-mare got a bareback hack around the field, and Immy got a lunge (my ankle was too sore for a third ride). The entire reason I ended up with O was because she would not go forward when you put your leg on, and would go no faster than a walk - when you put your leg on her, she would outright stop, make a face, look at your leg with annoyance, and pick up a foot. Basically, in all horsey ways possible, she would tell you to go to H and back. Since she has been here, the problem has completely changed from 'no go' to 'no stop'! I have NO problem with her going forward - she just wants to do everything her own way, and tells you that constantly. On Monday, she was HOT and about ready to pop a cork the entire ride. Things got interesting on the far end of the pasture (I went with S and her big yellow horse) when we spotted a rabbit on the other side of the pasture fence. "Look out," S told me. "That rabbit might jump out and spook her." I had no sooner located the rabbit when S shrieked, "OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT SNAKE! MOVE, IT'S HEADED RIGHT FOR YOU!" I looked down in alarm to see a HUGE 6 foot snake slithering at high speed directly for O's hind legs, and for my dog. When you see a giant snake in Texas, you automatically assume it is a rattlesnake, and you GET OUT OF THE WAY. I booted O forward in alarm, called Monster Dog, and we all took off on the other direction. S's husband came out and shot the thing, and we discovered it was not a rattler after all, just the biggest chicken snake on the planet. (It literally was longer than I am tall). I felt sort of bad that a harmless snake had to die, but you can't take chances - if it was a poisonous one that close to the house and any one of us or any one of the animals got bitten, we'd be in huge trouble. Texas is a scary, pokey, poisonous, stinging, sharp, prickly  venomous place to be - everything that lives here either stings, bites, or stabs in defense!

O quieted down somewhat during our ride, which was an improvement over the ride before. We trotted around for awhile at the top of the big field, and I let her have her head as much as I dared. She likes to curl her neck and avoid the bit, but spends a lot of time chomping on it necessarily. She'll go out to a contact, but she'll just as quickly root out against it, grab the bit, twist her head, invert, curl under... all manner of fun evasions. Thankfully, the teeth grinding does seem to be a one-time thing, since it has not happened again, and she was able more or less to stand quietly for a little bit when we stopped. (I know she has it in her to be quiet... at mealtimes when she gets tied up, she started off when she first arrived being a total hellion, thrashing around, chewing on the pipe, and pawing the moment she finished, and now she stands with a foot cocked and goes to sleep when she is finished. Patience, patience, patience.) I called it a day after she made some small effort to relax... that in and of itself was already an improvement.

I did somehow think that adding in a third mare would temper the psycho-attachment issues the mares have, but in reality it has somewhat compounded the problem. Here are Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum totally about to totally lose their marbles when I took P out to ride:

The second I turned to leave, they both panicked, galloping around their pen in total hysteria and screaming their heads off. They had NO idea what to do without P there. 

Mares, seriously. Perhaps there is a de-vocalization surgery I can look into...

On Tuesday, P-mare had double babysitting duty. We started off the day with a 2-hour early morning ride out in the big cattle pasture, S on her yellow horse and myself on P with O ponied alongside. O had never ponied before that I know of, but she took to it perfectly well. P, on the other hand, got a wild hair after a giant wolf-size coyote came bouncing out of the brush in front of us, and I had to hand O-Ren off to S for a bit while I reinstalled some steering and brakes on P. She was a total turd... I have no idea what got into her.

P was pretty pooped by the time we got home.

That evening, there was a barrel race that S wanted to go to, so we loaded up her yellow horse and both P and Immy, and off we went. I was going to just take Immy, but on second thought I wasn't sure how she would handle the loudspeakers, so I brought P along for good measure, just in case. I needn't have worried - Immy was a TOTAL angel and spent most of the time asleep, or following placidly along. P, on the other hand, was wide awake and raring to go, and I had to school her AGAIN and remind her that rearing and charging off after the yellow horse whenever he left was not an acceptable thing to do. I had a simple snaffle in, but even that was ticking her off to no end, so I switched to a thin bosal that S had in her trailer, and she did much better with that. What can I say, the mare hates bits and always has, good dentistry and soft hands be darned.... she just goes way better bitless, and since she is now mostly relegated to babysitting duties, I don't really bother with bits anymore. 

Immy really was perfect. She went to sleep while horses were running the pattern, and didn't even wake up when a train went by!! Next time, she goes without P!

On Wednesday, O was the chosen child for work due to other time constraints. S and I got up REALLY early, and were tacked up and on our way out to the big pasture by 7AM. O started off screaming for her friends and balking a bit, and even stopped for a moment and did her little kickout at my leg. That was the first time she had done it since she left her old property, and thankfully it only lasted a second - one cluck from me and she moved right on. (Mostly, she just needs to be reminded constantly that she is not the decision-maker in this relationship! She was allowed to do whatever she wanted before, whenever she wanted, so being told NO is a big thing for her.)

Once out in the big field, she was hot and springy, but mostly held herself together. When she gets bored, or stops paying attention to the things around her, she likes to curl her neck up and play aggressively with the bit, so I may play around with bits that have fewer fun jingly moving parts to them. (Currently she's in a thin 3-piece loose ring snaffle... so it moves and jingles a LOT!) She crossed two muddy streams with no hesitation, but had some total freakouts when S's horse was headed one way and I asked her to head in another. I got tired of her high energy at some point, and said, okay, we're just going to trot and keep trotting until you simmer yourself down. And off we went. 

And we trotted, and trotted, and trotted, and trotted. She started out with every evasion in the book - twisting her head and going sideways, slowing down, grabbing the bit and speeding up, tossing her head - but I just sat chilly and gave her X length of rein and X speed that she had to be going. She bounced all over the place between those parameters, but I just ignored her and kept on going. And I'll be darned if that mare finally didn't just knock it off and start reaching out to the bit and settling down. Once she figured out that all that excess energy that was going into trying to figure out how to take control of the situation wasn't worth it, she stopped trying and let me dictate instead. When she was good, she got heavily praised. We even tried a little canter, and it went beautifully.

Obviously, there is a LONG way to go with a mare like this who has been allowed to control everything her entire life, but this is VERY promising for only a few rides. Mostly, she just needs consistency and wet saddle pads. Lots and lots of them.

(Yes... embrace the sleepy, red mare. Embrace it!)

Today a huge cold front and some nasty storms came stomping across the state, so everything was too muddy and miserable for rides. It is going to be 33 tonight.... WHAT IS GOING ON? I am not sure what winter is playing at here, but I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be gone at LEAST two months ago. Apparently I was wrong!

Bucking Broncs, Craniosacral Capers, and more Immy Swimmy

I finally have a few seconds to sit down and write! Unfortunately, I had to be half-crippled in order to do this... my left hip, sciatic nerve, knee, and shin are all screaming with sciatica, bursitis, splint pain, and general crappiness at the moment. I opted to rest and blog versus ride for the evening... not the choice I wanted to make, but I really didn't have an option. I need to remember that on days when I have to ride other horses, I should just forget about working my own - sitting in western saddles that don't fit me well and jar me around horribly just KILLS me. I hurt so bad right now that I just want to die! (Sitting in my own saddle doesn't hurt at all, for comparison.)

Anyway... we had quite a week! It didn't go entirely the way that I wanted it to, but that is the way life works, and the weather as well. After another productive lunge session on Saturday, I opted to hop on relatively early in the morning. It was very chilly, and everyone had a bit of a wild hair that day, but I lunged her down in sidereins for quite a long time, and decided to go for it. She, of course, was still feeling extra spunky despite it all (you really can't tire this mare out... she can go FOREVER and never get tired!), and the moment I got on and asked her to walk off, she exploded into a series of bucks which took us halfway across the pen. She then followed this up with lots of jigging and a high powered bolt when she didn't steer away from the railing and my stirrup clanged into the metal pipe. FINALLY, she settled down, and we got a little bit of decent walk/trot/steering/whoa in, but that was all I decided to work on for the day. I figuree that not dying was a pretty good goal for that day, considering what I had to work with. Hotheaded mares...

Sunday I had planned on another ride, since the weather was so glorious, but she had other ideas, and didn't want to play that day. At this point in our relationship, if she doesn't want to come to me andintereact, I leave her alone for the day. There is no point in chasing her around until I corner and catch her - she will only be totally wired for sound and frightened when I finally get ahold of her, and no productive work will come of that. Instead, we worked off of my number one rule: if you don't want to come to me and be caught, that is fine, but you don't get to eat dinner. (They have loads of hay, don't worry... they just don't get fed their grainfoods!) She wanted to be near me when I was fussing around in their pen, but didn't want to actually be caught. I left it at that, and pampered P for a bit instead. (P of course promptly rolled and got filthy as soon as I put her back out...)

Monday ended up being a complete wash-out, seeing as by the time I got to the barn in the afternoon, it was 30 degrees and sleeting sideways. It had been in the upper 50's in the morning when I left, so I had left the girls naked for the day... poor things were frozen when I got there! I bundled them up, fed them, and had some drinks and dinner with S instead. Winter, just GO AWAY already, will you?

On Tuesday, the craniosacral therapist came! I hadn't ever seen a cranio therapist at work, and it was very interesting. (A bit more on craniosacral therapy here, if you aren't familiar with it.) The first thing Immy did was practically fall asleep the moment she started to work on her... she wasn't relaxed enough to actually zonk out, and kept forcing herself back awake, but she was very relaxed. She didn't like when the therapist reached up to work on the top of her head, of course, but once she was up there she didn't object. She had a horrible TMJ issue and was biting her tongue, had compression issues on her right side that were causing her some issues with vision (which resolved once she was worked on.... her right side is her spookier side, and that makes total sense!), and was in general completely locked up and tense throughout her entire body, right side especially. The therapist even noted that the way she moved the right side of her body was stiffer than the way she moved the left side. 

(Time for a trim too... those toes are way too long!)

Look at the difference in her posture! That is just wild. I'm going to try the recommended magnesium therapy on her and do the stretches and massages that she showed me, and we'll see how she is doing in three or four weeks. If all is going well, and this is helping, we'll schedule another appointment then.

On Wednesday, it was pool day! She completely surprised me by walking on the trailer with no hesitations or issues whatsoever, all by herself! This was leaving home AND leaving her screaming maniac sister, who is in heat and absolutely losing it down in her paddock. YAY! Progress, thy name is Immy!

Once at the pool barn, in her paddock, she was a total whackadoo. She trotted around screaming her head off for three hours before I finally got tired of it, and when another horse went into our Eurociser,  I put her in there too. If you have that much energy mare, you need to get it out!

That was of her at a slow trot. The program we usually do is a varied one, and they go both ways at a walk, jog, walk, trot, canter, and walk again for a 20 minute cooldown. The entire thing takes about 50 minutes. While I am not usually one for putting them on circles for long periods of time, she is strong enough, flexible enough and fit enough that the benefits outweigh the negatives. She didn't so much as break a sweat, and kept up with the front panel the ENTIRE time. Thankfully, back in her pen, she had just enough fizzle taken out of her that she was finally able to just stand still and eat her hay for awhile.

After an hour or two of resting following her first unintentional workout, it was pool time! She delighted me by walking right in like a big girl (last time she fussed quite a bit... it was only her second time, and that is pretty standard. By the third time, they almost always 'get it'.) She worked out VERY well, and is starting to go MUCH straighter! (For comparison, look at how crooked she was last time.)

Go girl!!

She STILL was wired for sound when I first tied her out to dry....

.... but FINALLY, she started to yawn and relax. She yawned a LOT during her cranio work... she yawned a lot after her swim.... she yawned after she ate dinner yesterday.... and I realized that up until she had the cranio work done, I had NEVER seen her yawn before.

(She wasn't really tired... she went back in her pen and trotted around screaming some more!)

Thursday I was way, WAY too crippled to do anything with them, so I used it as a rest day. We'll see how badly I am feeling today, but since we are in a new month, I'll at least be assessing our goals and looking to see what is in store for March... so glad to leave February behind!!

January Goals Recap, and February Goals!

It is high time for a recap of our January goals, and for our February goals to be mapped out! My hematoma is so big at this point that it is actually going to be the one typing this thing out. Seriously, it is creeping me out... no part of me should ever be able to wobble like this thing does. It is like the gobbler on a turkey, only on my leg. If it gets any bigger, it will need its own zip code.

January Goals:

1) Be going W-T (and maybe try a little C?) by the end of the month, in the roundpen (maybe try a little in the arena, depending on how she does)

Success! Although, after being lawn darted, I am not willing to say she is 100% ready to go riding in just any old arena anywhere. I'd say she is definitely solid w-t, in our riding area. But she isn't ready for bigger things yet.

2) More desensitization with the clippers!

We didn't work on this at all, and we should have. It got put on the backburner simply because I had bigger and more important things to deal with... but we'll be working on it when we have the time!

3) Have dentistry done
FAIL. We were SUPPOSED to have dentistry done last week, after struggling to get the dentist out for weeks, but the guy never showed up. This is a seriously frustrating matter... we'll see how this continues to unfold.

4) Pull entire mane
Success! Save for the little tiny bit right near her poll that will eventually become a bridlepath, we managed to pull the entire mane. Of course, it now sticks up everywhere in all directions... sigh! At least it is the proper length!

5) Continue with the theme of relaxation - in everything we do!
Success, mostly! I wouldn't say this was so much a goal as a way of life... I try my hardest in everything I do to make sure she is comfortable and and relaxed. She of course is not always relaxed, and will not always be, but even when she is being pushed a bit, I always make sure to end things on uncomplicated notes, things she already understands and is comfortable with.




February Goals:
1) Take her to the AquaTread once a week
2) Trailer out to other places once a week, whenever possible (even if just ponying, lunging, groundwork, etc.)
3) Ride 3 times a week (or 4!) and alternate with lower-key things
4) Be going comfortably w-t-c on a loose contact by the end of the month
5) Continue desensitization to bridling
6) Continue desensitization to clippers
7) First trail ride (while being ponied)
8) Standing quietly tied out


More goals than usual, but we have lots to work on!

Yesterday we had another ride, and it was a relative success considering it came on the heels of such a bad ride right before it. She was fussy and fidgety when I saddled her, but we did a whole mess of lunge work and groundwork before I ever got on, and she was in a very good mood by the time I was ready to get on. She fidgeted at first, not wanting to stand still at the mounting block, but I put a quick stop to that with some more groundwork and backing up. (Sorry mare, no excuses... holding still at the mounting block is paramount.) After that, she held quite still, and I got on without further issue. She was actually quite a lot quieter than I expected, not jigging or breaking gait even though she very much so wanted to - good girl! She was also not keen on holding still, so we did a fair bit of transition work from walk to whoa and back again. She diffused some of her energy by bobbing her head up and down while standing still... that is also not going to fly. She was doing it while tied as well... she was obviously feeling a bit anxious after the last riding session we had. Thankfully, she settled into her work, and directed her energies into what I was asking her to do instead of what she'd rather be doing (which was "let's trot, is it time to trot yet, I really want to trot!")

When S and the crew came down to ride, I had S pony us off of her big yellow horse for a lap around the field. Immy was not very keen on that, as she wanted to barge ahead of the yellow horse, and the yellow horse wanted to barge ahead of her. She managed to hold it together for her lap around the field, and it technically was her first ponied trail ride, but I think next time I will just go mashed into a group instead of be ponied... there was a lot of barging, head-shaking, and snarky behavior on both of their parts! (And we're definitely not ready to just head out into the big field yet, even with a bunch of other horses... she needs a LOT more work before we get to that point!)

After our lap, I had them leave me back at the barn for a little more alone time, and we did some more walk-trot-whoa work. She ended on a very positive note, walking quietly with her head low, very relaxed and content in her work. Good girl!


I crosstied her in the barn when I was grooming her, and she stood nicely, resting a hind foot and yawning while waiting for me to finish. We all stood back to admire how much weight and muscle she has put on in the past month, and were laughing that with all her extra energy, maybe I've been feeding her a little TOO well. She used to be lethargic, mopey, and constantly wearing her hind toes off from dragging her back feet miserably around all the time... now she is a red-hot, muscular, perpetual motion machine! I expected her to wake up a bit with a change in diet and the addition of a new job, but man, she is a hot head! She'll never have trouble making time anywhere, that's for sure!


The mares had today off, and spent it doing this:




Sorry about the camera lens smudge... it happens!
It is super fun to let them out of their usual turnout and into the big giant one to run around. This is what they do EVERY time... Immy leads P on a 10 minute nonstop gallop every single time!