Gah! Sometimes I really do hate Blogger. I tried to write a post earlier but it wouldn’t let me! The text box wouldn’t load, I just kept watching the spinning wheel of death go around, and around, and around… So I am typing this in Word and hopefully I can just copy and paste this in Blogger, but we’ll see.
So today. I rode Tanq and Jetta but I have sooo much to talk about so I’m breaking it up into two posts, one about Jetta and one about Tanq. Obviously from the title we’re talking about Tanq first.
We’ll start at the beginning. I headed back up to school today from home and stopped on my way up at Dutch Bros (I LOVE them!) and got a flavored Red Bull. I finally decided to try one since my roomie loves them. They weren’t too bad, but a little weird tasting and a little expensive for me, but wow. I was WIRED!!! I still am a bit :) Major trouble sitting still and not doing anything which was actually good because now I was motivated to do stuff!
I made it to the barn before the major caffeine or whatever is in those things kicked in. Brought Tanq out and went into the tack room where I discovered my tack box had moved. Sigh. I hate it when people touch/move my stuff without asking, though I’m sure the BO did it and it is her barn. Still. And now it is in a really bad position squeezed between the shelving where the grooming tools go and underneath a low saddle rack so it is really difficult to get things out/find them. I liked the old spot better so I think next time I’ll move it and see if the BO moves it back ;)
After finding my now repositioned tack box, I open it and what do I find?! This:
Yes, a mouse. A dead mouse sitting on top of my brand new fleece cooler. Ick! I thought it was alive but tapping the tack box and making noise got no reaction so I lifted the blanket and flipped it off onto the floor. I can tell you that there is no way I am touching that thing! Now I am really paranoid that there will be more waiting for me next time…
After that little ordeal I tacked up Tanq and went through his warmup. Last time whie riding I noticed that he was really short-strided with his right front leg/shoulder so I made sure to look for it on the ground and it was definitely noticeable. He was like that the last two times I rode him. I got on and he was still really short-strided so I got off and cleaned his hoof out. There were a couple little pebbles, but nothing that should’ve been causing his movement. I cleaned both left and right and wow what a difference! He goes barefoot in the winter and gets shod in the summer (I don’t think he needs shoes at all though!) but she still uses the regular farrier for barefoot. His feet aren’t as bad as I have seen some farriers make them, but his right food has a very small frog and contracted heels that are a tad underslung, while his left foot has a lovely big frog and better bars with no contracted heel. Weird. I wonder which came first, the movement or the foot? Getting back on I could see a very apparent difference in the development of his left shoulder and right shoulder so it’s obviously not something I’m just imagining. Hmm… I wonder what has caused it and if CL even notices it or if it’s something she’s just gotten used to. I don’t want to be rude and say your horse is really crooked, implying that she’s not riding/training him correctly. I also know that he has EPSM and Kissing Spine Disease so that may have something to do with it.
Aside from that our ride was fantastic! I love it when you have an aha moment and the light bulb just goes on. That was how it felt today. Last ride he wasn’t very sure of me and a couple time he popped his head in the air when I asked for a transition or resisted coming onto the bit. I was sure it was just because he was used to being asked differently but I wasn’t sure how to ask. Today though I asked him to bend around my inside leg and bingo! Much, much better! He softened up completely and was sooo much better. I just had to know how to ask for it :) His trot was much better and the canter was like riding a whole different horse. We still had a few moments but I just kept a steady feel on the outside rein, a little give and take with the inside rein, inside leg and voila. I used our corners to keep him balanced and we cantered and cantered and cantered just beautifully. He got quite a work out today! I worked more on my sitting trot too. This time I gave him a loose rein so I wouldn’t bump him in the mouth and found he is very well-trained. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could go bridleless on him because he listened so well to my legs and even neck reined slightly. I had fun with him. We did some lengthenings and collected trots and some shoulder-ins and basically just had fun. Too bad my last ride on him (for now) was when it finally clicked! I’m sure I’ll be back on him eventually.
I cooled him out and put him away and next was Jetta…
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| I love his pink nose! |
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