Foiled...... postponing the rererererererereredebut

 dammit funny

Mountain GOAT!!

 Mountain Trip

Hauled to Halfshire and swapped trailer out to Missy's bumper pull. Dan loaded right up without hesitation even before indy was on. But then proceeded to eat her chest bar en route! Doh.. gonna have to replace it. 

Got to Leatherwood mountain and it was a very nerve wracking haul once in the resort area. Very twisty/turny narrow roads with rollbacks. Definitely glad I was warned to NOT bring the gooseneck. Also tough because we weren't sure which house was hers, but luckily we found it. It was labeled, but the ones before weren't so we got confused. She also warned us to park on the road, unload, and then park the trailer at the top of the driveway. Apparently someone took their trailer down the driveway once. Um.. no! 

Lovely place... two stalls, paddock. Boys settled in and enjoyed themselves. But didn't eat dinner. Put them in stalls because it was pouring buckets, and we thought they might eat, and.. bears. Went to dinner at LookOut Grill, which was not a fun drive to get there.. straight up (well not straight... twisty turny up) a mountain to the top.. in the rain.. but yay for not having the trailer attached and the food and view was worth it. Once the rain cleared out.  Trip home was worse because we went to get food and went to blowing rock instead. Good gravy!!! Gravel narrow roads, no light... 30 mps top speed.

next day slept in, turned ponies out, then back in to "eat"... spoiler.. they didn't. then tacked up and hit the trails. Tried to do the "easy peasy rainy day trail" and.. it started out okay. Just with all the rain the ground was so wet and muddy with pretty deep mud. the boys were nervous but kept each other brave. They slid down some of the hills and then dan kept walking on the edge of the trail.. on the side of the cliff because he was trying to avoid the mud. Dude... we're gonna fall off!!! then he was trying to run down the hills because it was too hard to stay slow and balance. We had fun though and the trails were pretty. But hard work. these are not the flat easy trails at ashland. We got lost and somehow ended up on the path home that our friend said "do NOT take Robinson trail DOWN.. it's grueling and super steep, especially when it's wet out... " and.. that's how we went. It felt like at least a 45 degree decline. I felt like I was practically laying on Dan to avoid sliding over his head. We got about 1/2 of the way down and decided to get off and walk because it was getting a bit dangerous feeling. We made it to the bottom and we were all relieved. I still think we should have taken my way but Missy's phone said her way. Which was more direct, but... ha, straight down! No gps so no way to track. we let them drink in the creek and snack a tiny bit and then took them home. So hot and sweaty so a rinse and then turned out to eat hay, drink and rest. Then we had lunch. Then we sat in the hot tub. then went for a walk to see the pickleball court. Then decided to go to dinner at the local restaurant at the bottom of the resort. 

hung out on the screened in porch for a bit then went to bed. Saturday we slept in again a little, turned ponies out... tried to get them to eat.. then eventually after we ate, tacked up and went for a ride. mike had showed me how to use the satellite map and I had tried to find a path that was going to not be so difficult. Some of the trails were closed too. had a pretty good ride. Spent some of it on the roads instead of in the trails because I couldn't figure out how to merge. Did another fairly hilly trail with steep cliffs. dan wanted to start bucking down the hills. Dude.. no!! Like... why on earth do you do that? that's terrifying! crossed a cool bridge. Then let them snack for a bit on some grass and let another couple pass us. Then when we went to go to the next trail they were lost and ended up falling in behind us, which freaked indy out. So we let them go in front... execpt that made Dan anxious so he jumped the creek and then indy did too and flung his scoot boot off. We stopped and got it but he lost the strap so while missy got it back on, she was afraid she'd lose it. So we continued on but then when we came to the road, she wanted to stay on that vs take the wooded path home so she didn't risk losing her boot. I was tempted to try to ride some more, but.. we were on for two hours and they did work hard with those hills. So we hosed them off and then hand walked them down to the creek to drink and graze. Dan jumped the little creek and the soft grass sucked his hind shoe right off. Dangit...  eventually took them back up and they spent the day in the paddock. I went on the bike with mike for lunch. much better drive to Almost on the Lake restaurant. Got rained on again. but nice pretty ride. marty cooked us dinner and we just hung out and listened to the storm. put horses in for the night again, cause bears...

sunday, packed up and had to head home. 

proud of them for being brave on those hard trails and figuring out how to maneuver in the mud and the hills. proud of them for being so sweet to each other. Although apparently on the way home dan chewed on indy some. 

photos; Leatherwood

Videos

Finally got home with dan and turned him out. before i could pull his halter off Funny squealed and kicked him.. right in the right stifle. heard a solid crack/thud. dan held his leg up and was trotting on three legs for a good two minutes. Terrifying! but then put weight down on it but pretty lame. sigh..vet appt tues am. 

All In!!

 Well... I went ahead and signed up for Poplar, even though we didn't get to jump yesterday. I signed him up for a BN three phase. And then splurged and added a 2-3 test! Why 2-3?? I have no clue.. because it also had the turn on the haunches and I wanted to see how we scored on those. But it's got the three loop serpentine counter canter! ACK! And then it dawned on me that I've only got three rides left before the show. Not counting our mountain rides. I can ride today.... I can ride next Tuesday and next Thursday. And then we show Saturday. Somehow that crept up quick. So then I panicked. ha ha. Oh well. In reality... it'll be fine. I'll just be sad when we score poorly. But again... I mostly want to see what our comments are so we know what to work on. At least that's what I say.... 

 

Regardless... I decided to go ride today. Even though it wasn't my original plan... But I felt like if I could pop over some jumps, my anxiety would be better. So I rode Lyric first... then did some packing and prepping for the trip, and then... before it could decide to rain... I caught Dan and we headed to Ashland. The radar showed nothing. But of course when we got there I noticed some big gray clouds amid the blue skies with fluffy white clouds. I got on and we did a warm up hack around the little lake, to the cross country field, and then up the hill to stadium. I hopped off and set the fences up a hair. I didn't measure but I think most were roughly BN height. As I was finishing I started to feel raindrops. Are you kidding me?? Luckily though, no thunder or lightning, just rain. And it rained a fairly significant rain. I was pretty much soaked through. Ugh. Oh well. I was already on... we're doing this buddy! Besides... it kind of helped cool things off. It was so steamy and miserable. 

 

So we warmed up. I did try to do a three loop serpentine a bit, but it's hard in the jump arena to know your space. We did manage some more significant counter canter, but also got a partial change. I didn't do a ton but enough to warm him up. Then we popped over the cross rail a time or two and then.. we got to jumping. I started with four fences in a row... and he was great! I was not; however. I kept looking down at the fence and basically.. holding him. But he went and he even rocked himself back a few times to jump from the deeper spot. yay! Good boy! We then added some more fences and finished with a 8 or 9 fence course. And he was great!! Okay phew... I feel better now! 

 

So then we went to hack but we somehow ended up in the cross country field. And it was still raining. So I thought... well, let's just pop over one or two. The banana jump was right there, so we popped over that. He was super. Then we added the cabin. Then I decided I wanted to do the brush fence to the hanging log. But then I realized it wasn't a brush, it was the fake ditch and wall. But... we can still do it. Then I found the brush roll top... so we did that, to the fake ditch and wall and then to the hanging log. And he was super! Then we added another cabin. He was great but wasn't quite jumping boldly out of stride. Of course it was so wet and squishy that it was literally squealching with every footfall. I wanted to end with something a little more positive so we did another cabin and poor guy slid at the base but jumped anyways. Okay... I'm crazy but not that stupid, so... I decided it was best to quit while we were ahead. I'm feeling pretty confident that we can do the BN 3 phase next weekend!

 

So then went for a short cool down hack. I didn't want to go splash in the lake or do the water treadmill because heaven help us if we lost another shoe! So we just walked around the XC field a bit and then headed in. Poor guy was still puffing when we got to the trailer. I don't think it was so much the amount we did.. but more the heat and humidity. It finally stopped raining as we were finishing cross country jumping but then the sun came out and it was sweltering! Poor guy. He cooled off with his bath and a little more walking. It just got so hot and humid so suddenly this week! 

 

We headed home and filled up with gas so we're ready for tomorrow!

 

This is how we started the day!! Daniel! I had to hose him off before I left for Ashland. 

But, this is how we finished the day.... We'll see how he looks in the morning though. ;) 

 

Fancy Pants

 rode at home. first day of staycation. got his shoe back on. 

fancy pants. maybe felt neuro starting out but then once he got going he felt good. played with 2nd level and some canter to walks. may try 2nd level test at poplar. 

good pony. but so hot and sweaty

photos; Fancy pants

Bareback fun

 

This morning I slept in just a little. And then I was a little short on time but I'm glad I snuck in a ride anyways. I had to get to Aiken with Lyric to school XC but figured I could sneak in a quick bareback school with Danimal. Even though the turkey is missing his hind shoe, less than 24 hours after Patrick did him! Ugh. 

He was filthy and orange but I curried the chunks off where the saddle went, threw on the bareback pad and bridle and off we went. We hacked up to the arena and did our ride. We spent a good bit at the walk and then worked on the trot. He was a good boy and I tried to focus on my weight aids. I had sort of wished I had brought his neck rope so I could practice bridleless riding but I did focus on my weight and seat and leg aids vs mouth aids. But of course, I defaulted to the reins a good bit. We did some canter work and tried to do some changes. He did two good shallow serpentines and then I tried to get a change. Both ways he did eventually give me a change up front. I rewarded him, because even though it's late, not behind, and icky... he tried. Then we went back to canter to walks, which are still sucking. So that might be a big part of my problem. But we had some good canters. We also played with our extended trots and some more sitting trot work. He was a good boy and was trying hard. It was super steamy this morning again. UGH... summer is here. 

We finished up, hacked back home, and he got a nice rinse while he ate some clover and then out he went. I was able to make it to Aiken in time with Lyric, so yay! I'm glad I decided to hop on him this morning. And hopefully he'll get his shoe back on. I did find a hind shoe when I went to catch him but I think it's the missing wedge of Lyrics... unless he has wedges still too? I can't even remember. ;) But... I did find a shoe, so maybe it was his. It didn't look old enough to be Lyrics. But honestly, I thought Dan was in frog support pads without the wedge but I could be wrong. Ha ha!

Shoeless hack

 nice fun hack with kelli

missing hind shoe

collapsed up front a few times... crossed front limbs weirdly... kinda neuro acting... 

but fun ride today. took it easy because of the shoe

practiced half pass and leg yield in arena at start very briefly. make sure i swoop with my seat... sit on the outside to influence the hips and use my outside seatbone and leg to push the hind end over but swoop with my seat too to use rein aids

photos: shoeless hack

also... learned the smile trick. 

photos and videos

also.. in my xc lesson with lyric tonight, margaret asked about dan and said that it made her heart joyous to hear he was doing so well and that she thought the whole horse community was rooting for us. awwww... that made my day!