Guess what?!?! I finally finally finally got my arena fixed!!!! It took a hot minute! I finally decided that the river sand was awful and I was going to get rid of it. But getting M10 was proving to be difficult. My guy couldn't get any and had been trying for over a month. Then I had another client mention they were graders and could get me some and then they said they were having trouble finding it. Good grief. Another client was going to get me a quote but had some family health issues. So I had just about decided to give up and just take half the river sand out and see if that helped. Well then another client messaged and said she heard I had river sand and could she have some. I told her yes, and asked if she had M10. She laughed and said I coudn't have hers, but her guy had just brought her some and could probably bring me some. What?!?! No way! We were even able to coordinate the trucks so that we could share cost. It ended up being much more affordable than I was expecting! Yay! Like... 4K cheaper! And we were able to coordinate it with having it drug/graded and it could happen quickly! So.. it did! Tuesday Jonathan came and moved all my sand out and then Wednesday they brought 10 loads of M10 and took many loads of the sand. And Jonathan was able to add another board to the base of my arena where the footing was washing out. He also piled some more sand on the backside to help with the washoff. And he leveled the M10 for me. It looks amazing!!!!! It's dusty... but it hasn't rained in 3 weeks or more and the river sand was dusty too. At least the m10 is white dust and not red dust!
So yay!!!! I got to ride today and it was glorious!!! I was a hair worried that it was going to be too shallow because it seemed like it might be just walking on it. But, to be honest, Ashland seems that way too. And once we rode on it, there is just the right amount of hoof prints in there. In my opinion! Dan seemed much happier too. And even just walking on the river sand that was spread fairly thin up to the arena.. I'm soooo glad I replaced it. I hate that river sand. It's so shifty underneath you.. even when it's shallow. So yay!!!
I brought all my stuff out and set up the pivo and Dan and I did the works! I did some in hand pillar work first and we worked on incorporating the neck rope into pillar 2 as the cue. It worked great! It really gets him to shift his center of gravity without just backing up. yay! So after our pillar work I put the cavesson on for some lunging. He did great! Then I got on for a ride. And he was great! The neck rope is a great extra tool. We got some good work. I was so tempted to canter and see, but I didn't. But we did a tiny bit of leg yielding... Just very shallow, and very much on the buckle. But he felt good. And after our ride, he got a rinse and some coat conditioner and some skin funk spray. And I cleaned my tack. It's so nice to be able to ride at home!!!
And then he got a rinse and some coat conditioner and some skin funk spray. And I cleaned my tack. It's so nice to be able to ride at home!!!
I'm so blessed!!
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