Horsing Around

Sorry for the awful title, but we've really just been playing around this week which is kind of bad considering that we were planning on going to a dressage show next weekend. So I guess that it's kind of good that I got waitlisted for the show? Since when does that ever happen for an unrecognized dressage show? I'm not too bummed about it though.

It's rare to catch her napping mid-day!

Monday we just goofed around in western tack. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I decided that Misty needed a completely new western set up. So she got new dark teal boots, a gray and turquoise/teal pad and a new headstall (of course with a turquoise buckle). I'm obsessed. It looks great on her. Now I just actually have to ride western more often?

So adorable

I've been searching for a pad these colors for forever!

The headstall is a little iffy since it's an orange-y light brown that doesn't match my saddle whatsoever. I gave it a few coats of Hydrophane darkening oil and there was only a marginal difference. I'm going to give it a bit more, then maybe think of ordering some actual stain since the leather isn't finished anyways and I just want it to match my saddle.

Anywho, any advice is appreciated on how to darken this awful color of leather without stain.

Then yesterday I lunged Misty and then we played around with a new yoga ball that was left in the "toy corner". I can't remember if I've ever introduced Misty to a yoga ball, but if I did it was over two years ago. She acted like she didn't remember it (if she had ever seen one) and while she wasn't scared of it, she definitely wasn't interested in touching it.

I kicked the ball around and we followed it around a bit to get her confidence up, then tried to get her to kick it. No luck. She got very good at avoiding it at any and all costs, still not scared of it, just not understanding. Eventually she realized it wasn't awful if the ball touched her legs and it was kind of neat that she could kick it around. By the end, I could direct her at the end of the lunge line towards it and she'd do a pretty good job of tracking it and kicking it by herself without too much input from myself.

We finished up by lunging over some barrels. I've been trying to do more lunging jumps to improve both her confidence and fitness. So it was a fun day! At least for me :)