Wierdo

 Quick sunset lunge. still tried to eat the leadline even with no halter or leadline. ha ha.. goober!

lunged with leadline and still tried to hold it

then sat on his post... 

Cross Country Lesson

 

Wintery Ride

 Well I got to use my new fleecey breeches today! I like them. Friday was a beautiful day and Mike and I went to hike Blood Mountain. Which meant.. no riding. And then yesterday I volunteered at Pine Top so... no riding. So today.. I rode. Even if it meant riding in the cold. But hey.. it wasn't raining yet so yay for that! I ended up riding at home. I dawdled a little bit this morning because it was chilly and I just wanted to chill for a bit at first. 

I took my time and put the Bemer on Dan and did his core exercises. I also did some fascial work on that spot on the right flank where he's always so fussy. And it was interesting because he would snarl at me... then look curious... then look relaxed... and then I'd move my hand, and he'd snarl again, then look curious, then relax. So... hmmmmm. I will have to pay attention to that and keep working on it. I groomed him and tacked him up and bribed him with treats. But overall he seemed much happier and better behaved. So we shall see. I'm still unsure if there is some pain or if he's just a goober who likes to be snarly or a combination of both. 

 

I wanted to use the pivo so we walked up to the arena so I could set it up. We did a tiny bit of pillar work too. And then I realized, dang it.. I was hoping to use the equiband. Oh well. Next time. I warmed him up a good bit at the walk. I had set one ground pole out and we practiced doing the side pass over it. I don't know why but I thought it might be helpful to know how to do that. We started at the edge but going to the right he was actually quite good for his first try. Going to the left was much harder. Interesting... noted! As I'm sure that means something. 

 

We had a pretty good ride. Pivo is driving me bananas because it's not really working at all. It pretty much didn't track me at all, didn't zoom, and didn't really do anything. It was like I had just set my camera up there and hit record. Granted, I had the remote control but honestly, other than that.. I might as well have just set the phone camera up and recorded. Argh. I hope I can figure out how to get it working because it's handy to be able to monitor things. 

We had some good work but overall he felt more rushed today and a bit more on the forehand than lately. His canter was nice and we got some really nice work but when I tried to slow him down a hair and ask for more sit, he got shorter strided. I did get some good trot half-passes, some good walk to canter transitions, some good canter shallow serpentines, and some improved canter to walk transitions that were still not canter to walk transitions though. We also had some nice shoulder ins and a nice lengthen or two. But at the end when I tried to do a stretchy trot he was practically running away with me. Goober! 

We walked back to the trailer. I was tempted to take him for a neighborhood hack as he was still wanting to go and pick up the next gait as we were finishing up our ride and even when I had dropped the reins and told him he was done. However, it was looking more and more like it might rain and the radar said 1 pm. And i was still hoping to ride Lyric and wanted to eat lunch. (Unfortunately by the time I had lunch it was raining. Not hard enough to not ride, but hard enough to make me not want to ride). 

Unfortunately I definitely won't be riding tomorrow as I've got a full day and then Tuesday we'll probably do a XC lesson with Jacel to prep for Full Gallop! 

 

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed

 Thanksgiving 

Roid Rage

 Daniel... you sir, are a turd!!!!

I know you're on steroids, but you do this regardless! Sigh... I had a very limited time today to work ponies. I got home around 4:30 and it was cloudy and dark and gets dark around 6ish now. And Lyric hasn't been ridden since last Tuesday.... and Dan hasn't been ridden since before then I think... plus add in the fact that he was supposed to have a week off and then get lunged starting Friday... and I was working all day Friday and then I went to that vet conference Sat and Sun. 

Though I did manage a very quick lunge in the round pen on Sunday with Dan. But he looked tight and bracy still to me. Sigh..though maybe it was the footing... 

Anyways... today, I rode Lyric first and then took Dan up to the arena for a lunge because... better footing. Yeah, bad idea. He was FERAL!! I managed to get about 2 circles before he got loose, even with the cavesson on. He ran around a bit and then let me catch him. And then I managed to get a few circles before he got loose again. Argh! And again, he let me catch him pretty quickly. Okay, but sir, this is getting old. So then he settled and had a nice little lunge session tracking right for a few minutes. Although it was accompanied by me "eeeecchhhh"ing him consistently. Pretty sure my neighbors think I'm psycho. So then we tried to go right again. NO sir!!!! I swear he got loose like 7 times immediately after starting to lunge him each time. ARGHHHHH. I got so annoyed. And not only did he get loose, but he would go bolting off... rip roaring... tearing up my footing. I ended up moving some of the jumps out because I was getting frustrated. One of the interns showed up and offered to help but I told her that while I appreciated it, I wasn't so sure that Dan wasn't going to get loose and go rip roaring around again and run her over. And.. while I doubt he would run her over.. I didn't want her to get scared. 

So finally I gave up. I was hoping to just get one or two circles of nice trot and quit but he was being SOOOOO bad I gave up. Plus I was rapidly running out of daylight and still wanted to drag the arena because tomorrow is supposed to be rainy all day long. All day. So.. no riding or working ponies. Sigh. So I finally caught him and walked him down to the roundpen and we lunged in there. He was still grabbing the lead rope but at least I could hang on because he couldn't go too far or spin and get away. He finally realized it wasn't as much fun and lunged like a normal horse. Gah... why are mine all so weird!?!? Ha ha... 

Good news though... no coughing... well, except when he coughed up the hay cube I fed him because he let me catch him but then immediately tried to bolt again. And he looked more sound and less braced. Twit!!

Super pony

 So...why am I taking Dan back to the vet Friday? Hee hee.. He feels so good today. And yesterday. Ha ha. I mean, seriously though, he felt really good today. And after talking to Kim, I do wonder if it's more of just me riding him poorly creating the tension/pain. But she's in Aiken, so we're still going!

 

 

 

Anyways... today I had Aubreys barn and we only had 5 so I got home early enough to ride two ponies! I rode Lyric first since she had yesterday off and rode Dan after. I decided to use the equiband on him to see if that would help him use his hiney. I think it did. I also was smart and put a timer on my phone so that I wouldn't forget about it and overdo it! I tacked him up and we walked up to the arena and then I put the bands on. Unfortunately I grabbed both abdomen bands instead of one butt band so it was pretty tight on his butt. I only did 10 minutes of work because of it. But I do think it helped. We did a bit of walking and then some trotting. He really did feel more collected and like he was using himself better. We didn't ride long but we had a great ride. We focused on a straight neck coming out of the withers and even connection in the contact with a reaching neck. His trot was pretty nice and his canter was quite nice! We even did the shallow serpentine both ways and a pretty decent canter to walk one way and a nice downward with trot steps the other way. ;) But our upwards are getting nicer too. And we had some good lengthenings that were legit, not just faster. 

 

So yay. Good boy! Not sure if I'll get to ride tomorrow and probably not Friday before our vet appointment. And I guess riding this weekend will depend on what happens at our appointment. But... we'll be okay. Even doing training the next weekend at stableview. :) I'll just plan on warming up in the grass. ha!

  

 

He worked so hard and so well he got hungry! ;) But seriously though.. he had butt foam :)