She's Here!

McKenna got dropped off around 1 this afternoon and settled right in.  I was at work, but Connie said she came off the trailer cool and calm and relaxed right into her stall.  When I got there we put her in the arena and she just walked her around. I had to chase her around with the whip to trot and canter and even then she was totally relaxed.  She's got a floaty trot and I think once she relaxes and learns to use her body she's going to be a nice mover.

I put her halter on and we stood talking to Connie and another boarder as she rode around.  McKenna looked at the other mare, then promptly fell asleep.  She's just so relaxed and calm. 

Our vet was out to check another horse so we had him do a general exam on McKenna.  She does have a big splint on her left front.  The vet said it was old, and in a place that won't bother her.  She didn't flinch at all when he was listening to her heart, or checking her legs. Our vet used to breed TBs and said she looks great and is put together well.  Hopefully tomorrow will be our first ride!

Back to Work

I got back from San Diego on Saturday and went immediately to the barn.  To be fair it's on my way home and I only live 8mins from the barn.  I checked on all the ponies and gave all 3 treats.  Sunday I free lunged Zoe and planned to do a light hack with Bud. 

Jen was giving lessons and I rode around the other girls.  They were doing a a little course and she told me to join in.  We only worked on a couple fences, as I didn't want to interrupt the lessons and since Bud hadn't been ridden in a week.  We did a single diagonal fence, right to left, then a fairly snug rollback to a single on the outside going downhill.  I was holding Buddy a bit too much to the first fence, trying to keep him packed so we could make the turn and Jen got after me about it.  Once I let go and moved him up a bit it flowed much better and we were able to get a better turn. I think my biggest goal right now should be to stop picking at my horse and learn to ride the more forward pace.

Monday I was motivated after work so I rode both Zoe and Bud.  I haven't ridden Z in almost 3 wks, so I lunged her before getting on.  She was surprisingly good, both on the lunge and under saddle.  She had a couple little fits where she would put her head down and shake it while doing a mini crow hop, but after the first time I was prepared and it amused me more than annoyed.  We just worked on going forward and being straight at the canter and didn't do a whole lot since she's been out of work. 

I put the western saddle on Bud and channeled my inner reiner.  We worked on transitions and his stops.  There is something so fun about cantering down the long side as fast as you can and then sitting deep and saying whoa and having them stop.  Buddy doesn't have a sliding stop, but  he can stop pretty quick when he wants to.  We also did some lead changes and I rode most of the time with only one hand (a big step for me). 

Yesterday I gave Bud the day off and rode Zoe again, with the plan to pop her over a couple fences.  She warmed up well, and didn't have any tantrums.  I had just started going back and forth over a cross rail when I head a loud pop coming from the field behind the barn.  It's goose hunting season and there was someone shooting in the far field. I rode for another few minutes, but every time I heard a shot go off it freaked me out till I finally quit.  Zoe couldn't have cared less, but I had the willies.  The few jumps we did were good and I got a nice lead change out of her so at least we ended on a good note.

Easy Week

The ponies have had a pretty easy week.  There's a 17yr old FFA girl from L.A. whose been coming out the the barn the past week to learn about horses and an actual farm.  She said there is only handful of FFA kids in L.A., and no real farms down there and she wants to learn as much as she can.  She's the niece of a friend of Jen's, so Jen has been bringing her out and giving her lessons on Buddy. 

Kylie's had a little bit of riding experience, but so far she's doing really well. She's got him cantering, but they still need to work a bit on steering.  Today she and I took Bud and Zoe out for a long trail ride thru the grass seed fields.  I haven't ridden Zoe since the show, but she was great on the trail.  At one point, we went past an old run down house and barn that's been taken over by blackberries and Buddy refused to go forward.  He's been past the house many times, but today I had to grab his reins and pony him off of Zoe till we got past it.  Then he was fine and went wherever Kylie wanted.  Silly boy!

We've also been repainting some of the jumps.  We've got some of the 4H girls to help, so it's been going pretty fast.  Kylie is a bit of an artists, so she's going to paint some flowers and vines on one of our plank jumps.  Hopefully she'll finish that tomorrow!

What we've done so far!  I really like the red and black standards.

Decompressing

I had  lesson on Thursday, and Buddy wasn't at all motivated.  It was the same issues we've had over and over...trying to get him to go forward and I have to ride every stride.  I think that since we've stepped up his work over the past couple months, Buddy has started to burnout.  After the show this Saturday, I'll give him a couple weeks off with just some easy hacks and field rides.

Rick was able to mow the field this weekend, so we went out tonight for our first ride of the season!  The field felt great, but the grass still needs to be mowed again so it'll be perfect.  We should have room for 3 different arenas...a flat ring, a full sized dressage court, and a large (200ishx300ish) jump arena.  The field is a clover/rye grass mix and pretty flat.  Hopefully we can start moving jumps out in another week or so.

Because of how the property is laid out, we had to take the long way to ride out to the field tonight.  The short way is still pretty wet, with some standing water.  By going the long way around the property, you have to open a gate.  I rode Bud down to the gate, got off, opened it and went thru then had a problem.  I can get on Bud from the ground western, but its a lot harder English.  I had to lengthen my stirrup but I was able to do it.  While trying to shorten my stirrup after I got on, Buddy started walking away.  I meant to pull on the reins, but ended up pulling my stirrup off my saddle. 

I couldn't get it back on while mounted, and was too lazy to get off and fix it, then get back on again.  So I put it over my shoulder, and dropped my other iron and did our ride without stirrups.  We mostly just walked the field, looking for holes and getting  a feel.  We did about 3 minutes of trot and
Buddy felt very forward and  happy. I'm hoping the field rides can help him decompress and refresh him.