ok, I'm ready for summer now.

I brought work home with me last night to do so that I could ride this morning. Lucy was pretty strong but I am not surprised. The last time she was ridden was Saturday, by G (I paid her for a training ride so that Lucy didn't sit the whole time I was in NY). Then on Monday we did our little lunging thing with the crossrail, and yesterday we went on a low-key walk around the neighbourhood. All together, not really a big workout schedule for a former racehorse.

I got some nice trot work out of her, and we practiced coming into the contact and then going on the buckle, then coming back into the contact. She did a nice job with this. We cantered, but it was kind of a disaster. She more or less careened around the ring at mach 3. The paddocks are so hard and icy that I doubt she really moves around at all when she's turned out. I would have liked to let her run around the indoor before getting on, but the barn was buzzing this morning. By the time I finished riding, there were four horses being ridden! It was great having people around at the barn to ride with!

It started snowing while I was riding, and by the time I left the barn, the roads were a collective disaster. On my way home from the barn I witnessed multiple accidents, my car slid right through an intersection even with the anti-lock brakes working overtime (and I was going no more than 15 mph), and I didn't see a single plow. LOVELY!

Here is my friend Devon giving some love to another one of the OTTB mares at the barn, Lexi. Lexi and Lucy came off the track around the same time.

Lucy-related art!

I work full-time as a graphic designer and do pet portraits on the side. I got a new drawing table for Christmas and decided to break it in tonight and do a little drawing of Lucy.

You can read more about my art at my Polar Square Designs blog.

You know it's officially winter when 35 degrees feels warm!

It was 35 degrees today (practically tropical!) and I left work a bit early to get to the barn when it was still light out. I took L for a walk in-hand, just down the street and around the development that is right next to the barn. She was very curious about everything but remained level-headed the whole time. A huge dump truck passed us and she looked at it but didn't seem freaked out. I hope she is as brave when I'm riding her, and not leading her!

I used my yellow polo wraps (which looked fab on her) and I wore my bright orange reflective vest so that cars could see us really well. I like that the barn is in a residential area-all of the cars that passed us today slowed down almost to a crawl while going past. A runner joked "usually you see people walking their dog around here, not a horse!" as he ran by us :)

The ground is really hard right now, as you can see in the photos of the outdoor. Lucy sure uses her brain in situations like that. Usually when I turn her out in the outdoor, she waits patiently until I unclip the leadrope, then happily takes a quick lap around the ring. Today, however, she gingerly tip-toed around the edge, avoiding most of the ice.

pile of poles

After not seeing her since Wednesday, I went to the barn after work yesterday all excited to see Lucy and ride. Unfortunately no one else was around, so I had to keep it to ground work and a bit of lunging.

After Lucy had warmed up properly in the indoor, I set up some poles to lunge her over. She did great. It took a few times through for her to figure out that she didn't have to do anything special with her feet except trot through them. She tried to adjust her stride at first, and ended up stepping on the poles. Once she relaxed and went through normally, she was fine, because I had already spaced the poles out to match her stride.

She went through at the trot and canter and seemed quite chill about the whole idea, so I decided to set up the teenciest of crossrails for her. Of course that meant I had to set up a jump chute, so I spent 20 minutes lugging standards and poles across the arena, much to Lucy's entertainment. She kind of just stood there and watched me, probably wondering what on earth I was doing!

The crossrail that I set up was literally less than 6" off the ground, but Lucy was quite unsure about it. I led her over both directions. She'd walk up to it beside me and stop just before stepping over it. She'd look at the poles, then look up at me, then look at the poles again, like, "so do I really need to step over this thing?" but then she'd proceed over the poles and immediately come back to me for lots of pats and happy sing-song-voice praise.

I asked her to trot over the x-rail twice, and then she cantered over it once in each direction, and then we were done! I was expecting a giant leap over the "jump" at the canter, but she didn't seem concerned at all, and it was really nothing more than a normal canter stride. What a good horse.

Tonight Kenny is coming with me to the barn, and I think there will be a bunch of other people there because Tuesday is usually quite busy there for some reason. I am hoping to have a couple of really nice canters and maybe get some on video if Kenny is feeling cooperative ;)

Edit-we'll go to the barn another time. It is just way too cold tonight!

Thankful

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I celebrated Christmas with my own family last weekend, and today I am on Long Island, New York with my fiance to celebrate Christmas with his family. Lucy will be enjoying a lovely Christmas mash for dinner tonight thanks to the wonderful people I do the co-op program with at my barn. All the horses are privately owned, but we feel as though they're all our "babies" and spoil them accordingly. Thank you to all the other boarders at my barn who have welcomed Kenny, Lucy, and I so warmly!

Santa was very generous this year, and I can't wait to get back to RI to put the new nameplate I got onto Lucy's halter. I also got a gorgeous drawing table that I have been wanting for a while :D, along with some warm clothes and a great book about equine massage.

Never would I have thought this time last year that I'd have my own horse after years of dreaming about it. Here are a few things I am thankful for:

I am so thankful to have an amazing mare. After having Lucy in my life for less than two months, I couldn't ask for a better horse. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you already know I am head over heels for Lucy, but I truly cannot believe how lucky I am to have found her.

I am also thankful to have a family who supports my horse addiction, even if they think I'm nuts! I was so touched that my parents took a whole day to come meet their grandpony.

Kenny, my fiance, has been so amazing and supportive. I feel so complete with him and Lucy, like we're a little family (we'll eventually add human kids to the mix, but not for a while!!). He helps me with the barn when it's my day to do stalls, and I know he adores our pony just as much as I do! To top it all off, he is a pretty good rider!!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday, surrounded by those they love. Give your ponies a kiss for me!

fences: just a suggestion

Lucy had an absent-brain moment yesterday. I turned her out in the outdoor to let her play in the snow, thinking she'd want to run around because for some reason all the horses were left in yesterday. She galloped around once, then came back to the fence line, and attempted to JUMP over the fence, but without really picking up her front end. She scraped up her front legs above the knee and had some small abrasions, but I just left them alone because everything seemed superficial. She actually scared me big time because after it happened, she stood with her RH leg up in the air, not wanting to put any weight on it, but after I had a thorough inspection, I decided she was just being a loon, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with her hind legs. There wasn't any major damage and she trotted out sound...thank God! I hope that doesn't happen again.

I also hope she doesn't plan on going around a jumper/xc course without picking up her front end in the future!

I had a FABULOUS ride after I made sure she wasn't broken from her battle with the fence. I spent about twenty minutes just at the walk, getting her moving off my leg and asking her to bend just enough that I could see the corner of her inside eye. Then we picked up the trot, and executed some lovely sweeping figure 8's and serpentines. I let her trot on a loose rein first, and she seemed to appreciate the opportunity to move out a bit. She was still very much in control of herself, and there were no theatrics, and I was impressed that she listened to me even on the buckle. After she was moving really nicely through her back and hips, I let her walk for a few minutes and then picked up the contact a bit. We worked through some leg yields and lots of changes of direction, and she got tonnes of positive reinforcement. Every time I felt her relax through her back, I'd say in a sing-song voice, "Good GIRL!!!!!!" and give her a huge pat with my inside hand, and make a big fuss over how wonderful she was being. She is just the cutest thing...whenever she gets praise, she chews on her bit and pricks her ears and just acts so happy. I love this horse!

Once she was going really well at the trot, I asked for the canter. The trick is not to ask for a canter until the trot is exactly what I want it to be, and that way I will get a nice forward but relaxed canter. The first time she picked it up we were going to the left, and she kind of exploded into the canter because she wasn't quite ready for it yet. I asked her to transition back down to the trot and I got her back together, and then we picked up the canter from a much better spot and it was beautiful. We cantered BOTH directions and it was just so amazing. She was fluid, not rushing, collected, happy, and IN CONTROL! WOOHOO!!!!! :D I was totally excited.

Here are some photos of her playing before she decided the fence was in her way. I'm sorry they're a bit dark-the sun was just about to set.

Hello, are you there?

Lucy has progressed so much since I decided to start riding her like she's a horse, not a china tea cup that might crack if I squeeze it. She is learning about contact through my seat, legs, and hands, and she is taking everything in stride.

Here's a video from a few nights ago.

She is starting to be able to maintain a slight bend, and she is learning to give to pressure, whether it be through the bit or off my leg.

The past two weeks have been very hectic with Christmas fast approaching, and deadlines looming for me at work. Last night I was exhausted but I decided I needed to at least have a horsey cuddle, so I went to the barn. No one else was around so I did not ride, but I brushed her while she munched her hay, put her blanket back on, and then sat next to her hay pile in her stall and just enjoyed being next to her. I think she was kind of confused about what I was doing, but at one point maybe she thought I wanted to share her dinner(??) and she took a huge mouthful of hay, moved her head so that it was over my head, and dropped all of the hay right on top of me like "here, mom, have some yummy hay!" I was like, well thank you darling.

Then I went shopping and got all sorts of weird looks, and of course when I got home I discovered that I had a giant piece of hay sticking right up out of my hair like Alfalfa in the Little Rascals, when I thought I had gotten all of it off me.

Progress!

As a refresher, this is what Lucy looked like when she walked off the shipper's trailer on November 8th with a BCS of 2.5 according to the vet who did the PPE for me:

All of her ribs were visible, her hind quarters were sunken in with her tailhead quite prominent, the fleshy part above her eyes were sunken in, she had no extra fat on her whatsoever, and the bone structure of her shoulders was clearly visible.

After five weeks and two days, this is what she looks like:


I would say she's at a 3.5 or 4. She is starting to build up muscle and fat along her withers and barrel, her top line is rising, her hind quarters are filling out and gaining some muscle definition, and her shoulders are starting to bulk up enough that you can no longer clearly see the bone structure.

She still has a lot of weight to gain, but she is looking MUCH better. I am really happy with her response to the feed plan we developed for her. She is on a fairly high fat but low protein diet, with lots of hay. She eats a complete feed and hay stretcher, and also gets corn oil, which is very high in fat.

Lucy got her feet trimmed and shoes re-set today and everything looks fantastic with them. She actually had some decent growth over the past five weeks. She is on a hoof health supplement and I'm sure that has helped a lot.

baby steps

Having a young, green horse really makes me appreciate the small stuff. Tonight's ride was 75% walk, 20% trot, and 5% halting and I loved every second of it.

Lucy started out with a bit of resistance to my attempts at establishing some form of contact. In order to evade the contact, she tried trotting. She tried wiggling. She tried halting. Eventually she realized it would be easier just to at least try this contact thing out, you know, give it a spin, and that's exactly what she did.

We had a kick ass little bend going, and she had a few really nice moments of really giving through her back. I could feel her top line rising under me when she really accepted the contact and relaxed through her jaw. After fifteen minutes, she was almost looking for it. I would ask her for the contact and go through a few serpentines/changes of direction/etc and then as a reward, she got to walk on a long rein for a few minutes. It got progressively easier to pick her back up and get her "together" (well, as together as you want a horse to be at this point). I asked her to move sideways off my leg, and once she got the idea, we put it together with going across the diagonal, and wah-lah! We had a leg yield. We had attempted that during our lesson with Gina the other night, but our first few tries were pretty unorganized and messy (which was fine!). I was really impressed that she figured it out so quickly, and of course she got lots of praise and stretchy walk on a long rein for a job well done.

I had to continuously run through my position checklist in my head. I started at my eyes and went all the way down to my toes. Was I looking where I wanted to go? Were my shoulders open? Was I sitting tall? Was I posting properly? Was I staying relaxed through my hips and not pinching with my knees? Were my legs underneath me?

This seems like pretty standard stuff, especially for someone who has been riding for a long time like me, but my position has gone off the deep end lately. It turns out that when all my ducks are in a row (i.e. heels, hips, and shoulders), Lucy goes very nicely. If she got fighty and quick, I ran through my checklist and the problem was usually that I was hunched over, or balancing off my knees, or something equally horrendous.

After she was going nicely at the walk, we did some nice stretchy trot work and gradually I asked her to come into the contact at the trot. She did really well!

Indoor = giant playpen

I was not motivated to ride at all last night, so instead I let Lucy play in the indoor. She had a blast! I figured she needed to move a bit since it has been so cold and icy, and the paddocks don't lend themselves to lots of playing.

I think she enjoyed herself, how about you? :)