Productivity!

Not too much of a horsey weekend, but I did have to bring up 3 tons of hay for the horses. I borrowed my dad's flatbed and had the hay loaded on it. About half way to the barn I passed a bicyclist who was staring and pointing at my truck, so I figured I should pull over and see what the fuss was all about. This is what I found:

Leaning tower of hay...

Someone failed at stacking. I lost two bales out of the middle

Luckily a random guy stopped and restacked them for me. Sometimes I love people, it was such a nice thing to do!

Today, I had quite the productive day at the barn. I had only one early morning class today so afterwards I was planning on homework, but ultimately decided on going to the barn instead. The farrier was coming at 1:30 meaning I had three whole hours to fill in the meantime.

I cleaned the stalls to perfection, gave both girls a good grooming. Lunged and rode both horses then cleaned all my tack. I finished it all up right at the perfect time for the girls to get their toes done.

Neither of them have been growing much hoof since I've been riding them on gravel and their runs are concrete, they pretty much wear it off at a fair rate. I've been smoothing down the edges with my rasp whenever needed, but an actual trim hasn't been needed in months... I think like December? So I figured it was time to have the real farrier out to balance up their hooves. Especially because Misty has weird feet that I just don't even know what to do with.

Misty has a big scar on her left front. It doesn't interfere in any way, just looks ugly and makes her hoof on that leg grow differently than her other front hoof. She's been getting a lot of heel on that foot but not on the other. Then add in that her right hind is having all sorts of fun flaring out to the side... She needed some balancing done. AC said her hooves were fine, they might not look perfect but they were functional. She's got great sole depth and nice thick walls going on!

On the riding front, I rode both girls dressage. They were both great! Kept both rides pretty short and sweet because I am SO SORE. One of my main personal goals this year is to get in better shape in order to benefit my riding. I always feel like I'm going to die after cross country so I figure if I'm more fit it would probably help :) In that vein, I signed up for a 5k color run since it sounded fun. I was super good about running the first few weeks after I signed up, then I sprained my ankle and didn't run for 2 weeks... But I was determined to do it. And I did! I managed to run the whole thing and my ankle didn't even hurt. I was so proud of myself because I am not a runner. But my body is now mad at me and so is my ankle, so riding was a bit of a struggle today.

Colorful!

Misty:

I'm considering showing her at first level at the show at the end of this month. She's starting to really put the pieces together for all the new movements introduced at that level, but so far everything's "good" but not great. I think we've finally found our lengthened trot, but it takes quite a bit of tinkering to get it during our ride, so it's not quite ready to be put out there in a test. Leg yields have improved quite a bit but aren't quite consistent enough yet in our bend and angle, but at least she's stopped getting worried about them. Circles still need some smoothing out, but our trot loops and all transitions are a lot smoother.

Will do a review on my new breeches soon. I love them so far!

Jetta:

I don't want to jinx it this early on, but I feel like I'm finally starting to get my horse back! I hadn't ridden her all weekend, but I tacked her up and lunged her in side reins first. She was definitely more uppity and spooky this time around. Every little sound seems to set her off and several people were cleaning stalls which was apparently very scary, but she wasn't as bad as she could have been.

When I got on, we did our long walk warmup with lots of leg yields and shoulder-ins and bending to make sure she was listening well. In the trot, she definitely is not quite there muscle-wise yet to carry herself which means I do a lot of holding her up, but we still have been able to get nice moments of self carriage. Lots of bracing in our rides, but again, she has at least as many soft moments as braced ones. We will get there eventually! Since she's having trouble carrying herself she ends up on her forehand and resultingly gets a little too speedy at the trot, but I would much rather have that than her awful pony trot. She was super good about leg yields and shoulder-ins at the trot. The canter was great today too! Last time we had trouble to the right where she got tense and speedy, but today she was perfectly balanced.

Ahhh, feels good to ride her again. By the end of the ride, she wasn't even tensing at all of the noises going on around her. Success! We only had one minor tantrum when she spooked at something and did a baby hop/spin towards the center of the arena, but it was so minor compared to her recent bronc moments that it almost isn't worth mentioning. I was a happy camper with my horses today!