Mid-fall Break

After the show at FHF, Peebs got a bit of a mid-fall break.  He had spent a couple of days at TCF before the show (since the weather was perfect and dry and they reopened the big pasture) and I decided to leave him there after the show. I had plans to be out of town for four days and felt better about leaving him at TCF where he could be out 24/7 vs at GS where he would be out only a handful of hours a day, if that. And after his colic episode, I trusted A to watch him better. The morning feeder at GS had noticed he was slightly off his feed the morning he colickd, but they didn't tell me till 3pm in the afternoon. Not cool.

Nap time

In the three days between the show and when I left for my trip, I got some nasty 36hr stomach bug and spent most of the time hurling my guts out and sleeping. Thankfully once it was over I felt perfectly fine and back to my normal self. So between everything, Peebs got 7 days off. He didn't seem to mind at all. When I got back he went for a lunge the first day and spent a good 20mins blowing off steam before settling down. He was his normal, lazy self for our rides after that.

So that's Peebs bridle, and I didn't have to adjust anything on it to fit her head. His girth also fits her.

Cinder on the other hand, has decided that fall is the perfect time to come into heat. She has one heat when we first moved to TCF early in the summer, but then I never noticed her showing signs till last week. She was way more flirty with the boys in the pasture, and peed every few minutes with them, but thankfully didn't do any of that when I had her out. She was more amped during our ground work in the arena and I ended up letting her loose to run off some energy.

Cinder's changing color

About a month ago I switched her grain in a continuing effort to find something she likes and can eat with her allergies. She's on Purina Wellsolve L/S and likes it. I've noticed since switching her to it that her coat is way shinier and she's developing Bend-Or spots. She's got a few on her right hip, and one on her left. I also noticed she's getting some dapples on her barrel but couldn't get a good pic of them. I guess the Wellsolve is agreeing with her!

A Little R&R

When TS adjusted McKenna last week not only was she out in her poll, she was way out in her hips. TS hit one spot on her and poor McKenna dropped her back so fast I was afraid she'd fall down. TS said she also has muscle and ligament soreness in her lower back and hips.  She wasn't worried about it and after the adjustment McKenna wasn't reacting when TS was palpating the area. She actually said the muscle soreness was good thing; McKenna's developing a top line and her hunter bump is almost gone. TS recommended some time off and a few days of bute then slowly bringing her back into work.

She also figured out the Lickit

Being the over protective horse mom that I am, McKenna got to go in her BoT sheet for a few days, all the treats she could eat, and some long turnout time in the outdoor paddocks. The outdoor time only last two days before she figured out how to open the gate and let herself out.  Luckily she didn't go to far (found a stack of alfalfa to munch on) and one of the other boarders saw her go trotting out the gate so she was easily caught.

McKenna's view from her stall of the scary loud tractor and trailer.

I lunged her lightly Thursday and Friday in some loose set side reins to see how she'd be, and after getting some impressive bucks out she was quiet and relaxed.  Yesterday I got on after some more lunging, and while she was still not thrilled about going forward to the right, she felt pretty good.  If I tried to pick up the trot tracking right she would sully up and get pissy, but we worked through it. I did a lot of circles, figure 8s, and changes of direction trying not to pick or put too much pressure on her. Our BO was loading a trailer full of manure for a landscape contractor while I was riding and it made McKenna tense (read: lots of noise and scary sounds), but she didn't spook and kept it together.  We only did about 20 minutes of walk-trot with the focus on going forward and relaxation. I'm hoping that she works out of this right side stickyness but luckily TS is coming back in two weeks to recheck/do a makeup lesson.

Time Off All Around

After my marathon 12 days at work, I'm off for 9 days!  I will be helping out at the 4H fair Mon-Wed but sleeping in yesterday and today was glorious!  Add in lots of pony time and I'm already feeling back to normal.

I managed to make my lesson on Thursday.  Buddy has had basically a week and half off with just a couple quick rides after our last show.  He felt lazy warming up, but was great when we started jumping.  We've moved the jumps out to the grass field and it's so nice to have so much space to ride in.  There's a couple slick spots, even with studs, but we didn't push it or try to take any crazy tight turns.  The few little issues we had were minor and easily fixed; like closing my hip angle to encourage him down the line, or committing to a straight line when taking another fence on an angle.

Bud will probably get some easy rides this week, depending on what the fair schedule is like. I am going to take a lesson on Friday, probably on one of the school horses who I can jump up a bit.  Jen suggested riding her since she's so push button and I can focus on me over the big 3'+ fences and not worry.  The only catch is that the mare lost the pads on her shoes but the farrier is supposed to come on Wednesday to fix that.

Well earned rest

Buddy is getting today, tomorrow, and Friday off.  We had a couple nice flat work ride Sunday and Monday and a great jump school yesterday. I didn't wear spurs for our flat work, but he remembered them!  We had some of our best leg yields yet, and some decent shoulder in. Our counter canter still needs work, but we did manage to go once around the ring tracking left on the right lead.  It's a start! Monday we went without stirrups and while the arena was busy, we had a decent ride.

Yesterday I set up three fences to school over.  I set up the vertical going up on the left that caused us trouble in our lesson.  The other two fences were diagonal fences.  I started with an "x" and low verticals then put the two diagonal fences up to 2'3".  The outside vertical was still giving us trouble, and Buddy was really tired and not helping me out.  I had the spurs, but he was pretty pissy with them.  Our diagonal fences were really nice.  I schooled them on a short turn out of the corner, working on keeping him square to the fence and coming forward out of the corner.  We nailed everyone of them!  While we still have issues going forward to the outside fences, I was really happy with the diagonals, so I didn't push it since he was tired. You really learn how to pick your battles with Buddy!

Now he has three days to recuperate.  I was pretty tired after work today so I just turned him out in the indoor and let him roll. Tomorrow I have a 2hr workshop for my job, after I put in a full day so I probably won't have the energy to ride.  Friday my mom flys in from San Diego and we are going to the Brad Paisley concert!  I won't be able to make it out to the barn, but Bud will go back to work on Saturday.