Saint Peebers

Peebs proved yet again he's a saint this weekend.  As much as I get frustrated with out canter issues, and my jumping fear issues, I REALLY love and appreciate that I can do stupid shit with him and he takes it all in stride.  I dressed him up (not nearly as awesomely as Bobby was), jumped a Christmas tree, and had a lesson in the pouring rain this past weekend.

I started by playing dress up Saturday with some garland, reindeer antlers, and a blinky red nose.  Peebs wasn't a fan of the antlers, mainly because he can be a bit ear shy and they were touching his ears.  It was hard to keep him from shaking his head and throwing them off.  But we got a couple cute pics out if, even if he looks less than thrilled.

Peebs: I'm pretty sure when I got bought by a 20something the stupid "dress up the lesson horse thing" would stop. Me: You thought wrong!!!!

Bright and early Saturday I went Christmas tree shopping for the first time in 8yrs, I think.  And I have no intention to put up my tree or decorate.  It's purely jump filler.  I've seen pics for years of people jumping their trees during the holidays, and finally this year I have a horse that I feel comfortable doing it on. So I went and bought a small little tree to play with.  I put in the indoor while I had Peebs turned out and he glanced at it once then ignored it.  I free lunged him a bit and he jumped it on his own so I figured we were good to go. I tacked him up and put the garland back on. A quick warm up later and we headed to the tree.  And he didn't care. One. Little. Bit.  He pretty much fell over the fence the first time.  I think I need to get a bigger tree!

Jump the Christmas 🎄 while wearing garland? #nobiggie #stpeebs

A video posted by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Dec 10, 2016 at 2:55pm PST

Sunday we had an early morning lesson. It had rained all night, but wasn't while we tacked up. The footing outside, while puddle filled, was fine so we braved the outdoors. And of course it promptly started raining about ten minutes into the lesson. Trainer called my bluff and made me stay outside. We did end up completely drenched but oh well. We didn't do much, just four fences strung together at the trot, working on bend and pace. Peebs was trying very hard to avoid the bigger puddles, and of course to get a good approach to fences we had to go through them. He wasn't pleased but I made a big effort to not get mad and pick at him and we actually had a pretty nice ride. It felt like if I picked a fight, there was a huge screw you in him and I'm glad I was able to avert disaster. Small victory!

Peebs says screw you and your Sunday morning lesson in the rain ☔️🌧

A photo posted by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Dec 11, 2016 at 10:39am PST