Bringing Up Baby!
Trail ride with Sharon and Baylor
Truck mishaps... hazards... scary. BUT I'm RIDING!!! DANGIT
lovely hack with baylor, minus baylor kicking dan.
then did a little arena work. felt good. happy in the western bridle it seems. no tongue, no fussy, no curling, but a bit more up in his posture/slightly inverted. Mostly cause he was looking for baylor. softened nicely when he was soft. did leg yield, 15 and 20 meter circles, serpentines, and a halt.
good pony
Dan's western anatomic bridle came! And it ALMOST fits. I mean.. it fits.. but barely. I kind of wish I had gotten the oversize, because the crown and browband are a hair snug. But not bad. But then the cheek pieces in full are almost too long as it is. Which is soooo weird, because... it seems like Dan has a long narrow head, so.. I'm not sure why people make the cheek pieces so dang long all the time. And it's super dark brown.. almost black. But it is pretty. Although I kind of wish I had gotten the lighter brown. I'm so tempted to order another since it was such a huge discount... But.. then the stupid tariff. But... tempting. I don't know.
Anyways... I put it on him tonight to check the fit and then... couldn't help myself. I hopped on! I only rode him for 9 minutes but we walked around and he steers better. We also trotted a tiny bit and he didn't curl or anything. But it wasn't a real assessment as we were just farting around in the pasture. And.. he keeps trying to eat the shanks and the reins. Ha ha! Which.. he does in everything. But... now that I'm thinking about it.. I don't think he did in the bosal. So... maybe I need to keep him in the bosal and see if I can learn how to ride better in it. I don't know if the chewing at the bit/reins is just him being a goober and wanting to put things in his mouth... like the leadrope, his blankets, my clothes, etc... or if it's an anxiety/pain thing related to a bit. You'd think he'd grab at the bosal too... and maybe he did in the beginning... but I don't really think so. So.. I don't know. We'll play around and see. Luckily I have friends willing to loan me things to try!
so cold, but.. did in hand work. alternating raised poles. single raised pole. pillar work. zero tolerance on eating reins.
then got on with bitless bareback. no pad. wasn't expecting to get on. no helmet either. walked around and did poles again. played with steering. better than with bosal. Or just better in general today? trotted but sluggish and not really wanting to stay in trot. sore feet? ground hard and semi frozen. sore left hind? got better at the end and did some figure 8 serpentines down whole arena.. definitely easier to change directions than in bosal. but seemed maybe like he wanted to duck behind the vertical. lack of release? or just.. coincidence. pain from left hind or stifle?
tried to side pass in hand after. decent going to the left but much unhappier going to the right. did get it and reward.
removed bandage and shockwaved. Won't ktape yet because of lube. will try thursday
Or... I just want snacks!
I was lunging Lyric in the arena today and Dan was mooching for snackies at the arena fence. He really wanted to come play. Afterwards I decided to ride Funny but told Dan that after that, we could play.
Except I had to finish storm prepping. But I did manage to do a tiny bit of work with him. I grabbed the fanny pack full of hay pellets and opened the gate to the roundpen. He came in with me. I didn't even have the halter. We walked over the v poles and the two alternating poles a few times. I clicked and rewarded. We did it a few times and then we did some turn on the forehand. And then the poles a few more times. And then we were done. Because I didn't know what else to do. And technically he's still on rest after his injection.
started truck and they all ran off
let me catch him. got 3/4 the way to truck and reared up and spun and tried to run. tried a few times while i yelled at him and hung on. lifted me up a tiny bit. NO SIR! managed to hold him. shocked him! got him to trailer.
vet visit: sound and looking fantastic right hind! Barely flexed positive and worked out of it quickly. then vet student did left hind and he looked crippled. Like.. could barely trot.. toe touching crippled. worked up the limb and got slightly better the higher we went. ultrasounded fetlock... tendon sheath effusion, mild adhesion. but suspensory looks good. phew! Injected with steroids and HA, rest 5 days, then shockwave.
back to work after, slowly build him back up, base more on how he feels left hind vs the stifle.
xrayed stifle - looks so much better.
foot films - great shape. can stay barefoot behind, but left hind is slightly negative. likely from compensating for right hind. will k tape after bandage comes off to help support and support the tendon sheath too.
yay! Left naked because... last "warm" day for a bit. And.. bad idea. sooooo filthy!
photos: filthy
video: brushing off mud/dirt
photos; Bored boy
Homeboy needs a job. ran out of time so opted to go to pasture and toss on bosal and bareback pad. climbed on auto water trough to get on and did NOT fall in. rode in pasture and he tried to sling his head and buck a few times. then went to arena. tried to work gate but just don't have the steering in the bosal. trotted a little and did some figure 8's but really not thinking the bosal will work. darn. then went down the driveway. had a minivan fly into the culdesac and then fly around and back out. Rude. then opted to hack to the lake since dan was being so good. tom's dogs (3) came out and barked and growled at us and dan was like "whatever" and carried on. GOOD BOY! Seriously good boy... like that could have been awful. then hacked past lake to tennis courts. Trotted a bit and got a nice fancy trot. then he tried to run off. did a few more circles and then headed home. got to the lake and had a car come up behind us, very slow (it was brooke!) and had two neighbors walking towards us. said hi and took him down to the lake edge to avoid the car and he went to "jump" the little dam section and turned it into a bucking spree. ha ha. mild. but still. I was pulling his head up and telling him he was a twit and trying to stay on in front of Brooke and the two neighbors! Fool! But I did. ha ha.. they were like "he's beautiful".. i was like "He's a twit!" . ha ha.. no more drama the rest of the way home.
hopefully he gets cleared for real "work" on friday because boy needs a job!
video: jogging in arena
Making lemonade out of lemons! I had scheduled a farm today and blocked off the whole day... and then, this morning, they texted and said they only had 2 horses for me. Ugh... really guys? I could have filled that slot! Or slept in. Of course in retrospect, I should have asked my first appt on Wednesday if I could have come today, but.. .I didn't think about it until after dark. Darn... because that would have made it easier to get my truck dropped off. Oh well.
So... I went and saw the two horses. And then dropped some drugs (medications people.. medications) off at another farm. Then headed home and had lunch. And then... I took Dan to Ashland. Because I didn't get to ride him Sunday and probably won't have time tomorrow. And it's supposed to get miserable cold again. So... we enjoyed the day today.
We had the whole farm to ourselves. I put the bareback pad on and the hackamore and off we went. It was chilly but not too bad. We tried to get some hills in. He tried to snack. I let him. We did some trotting in the fields and even in the woods and he was pretty sound and fairly forward. A few times he hit the breaks but was forward while he was trotting.
We finished in the cross country field so we did three laps each way in the water treadmill at the trot. :) Brrr, but.. it was nice. At least the sun was still out and the wind had died down.
Good boy! Fun day!
Today was supposed to be a rainy stormy day. But.. it really wasn't. It didn't know what it wanted to do. Like me. ;) But, it did look like the rain wasn't supposed to start til around noon or 1ish, so... I took a chance and grabbed Dan after breakfast and we headed out. It was warm enough that I wore a sunshirt but there was a little breeze so I added a vest. (But then I got hot on our ride and took the vest off. Again... in January!!).
We got to Ashland and I got him "tacked" up - although I did put him in the bridle today vs the bosal or the hackamore. We saw Judy and Teller so I mentioned to her that I was going to hack over to say hi to Aubrey (who I thought was already teaching in the XC field) but that would love company if she wanted to join me. She had just pulled in as I was hopping on. So I chatted with Jenn and her crew for a minute before we went to the XC field. Sadly Aubrey wasn't out that. Ha! I let Dan snack for a few minutes and then Judy showed up. The boys played a short game of bitey face. Teller likes to play as much as Dan so they were a good match. Hee hee. We hacked over to the bridge and then went up the steep hill and then down idlewhile. Dan was happy enough to be behind Teller. He's not as fast now that his stifle was broken. But then coming down the hill he kept getting rowdy. He would sling his head in the air and then bounce up or buck. Which.. fine, but when he slings his head first he knocks himself off balance. And pulls the reins out of my hands. So... no sir! Judy let me get in front but that didn't really help. I wonder if the downhill was bothering him or if he was just being rowdy?
He let Teller lead again on flat ground although he would randomly toss his head and bounce the entire ride. Goober! We then went along the creek beside 138 and crossed the big creek crossing. They had another round of bitey face and then Dan was pawing and splashing in the lake and Teller was threatening to go down and roll. Hee hee, Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum! We got them moving and carried on. We headed up the nice gradual up hill stretch and I mentioned doing a little trot in twix and tween... Judy agreed so I went to pick up the trot and.. I don't know what happened.. it was like his stifle either got stuck or he stepped on a stick and rolled, but his hind end gave out, then his front end slipped and then he slung his head... I pulled him up because honestly I didn't know what was happening. We decided to not trot on the wet leaves anymore. Then Judy's husband called and said that we were about to get wet! Sure enough it did look a bit menacing off to the .... west? east? Ha! Darned if I know. So we did trot in the hay field and he felt pretty good. He was quite forward and quick but then would slam on the breaks to wait for Teller or if I tried to get him to slow down. Goober! Unfortunately Teller couldn't keep up so it was a bit of haphazard trotting. We managed to make it mostly back to the woods before it started sprinkling. Oh well. At least it's warm. And luckily it didn't do much more than sprinkle even though it sure looked like it was going to be a heavy rain.
We untacked and loaded up pretty quick because we thought it might get bad. But then Aubrey came over to say hi, so her and I chatted for a few. It was good to see her.
We got home and it was still only sprinkling. It maybe rained a little harder later on, but not terribly. And was dry for quite a good bit of the day. (well, the ground was wet but it wasn't actively raining a good chunk of the day). But I didn't ride the others. I did get my business taxes mostly done. So yay for that. And hung up my watercolor of Lyric. And took the Christmas tree out. So... I accomplished things at least.
