pause/fast forward to tomorrow

Ok I know I said in my previous post that it was "a bit windy", but that was when I was still sitting in my office. Originally I was all set to ride but as I drove down the barn's driveway, the outdoor ring resembled the desert in a sand storm, and the jumps were being knocked over from the high winds. It was incredible! I decided to let Lu have another day off (sigh) and we will really get back to business tomorrow, which is supposed to be beautiful.

In lieu of riding, Lucy had a spa day. She got her feet done, this time with shoes all the way around. She did a number on her back feet when she galloped down the middle of the road the day that Cinnamon took her in the field, so Frank didn't think her hinds would hold up for another six weeks, especially if I am planning on riding a lot. So we opted to do the hind shoes and re-evaluate in a little while. I'm hoping to be able to pull them again maybe in the fall.

I also clipped her legs and her bridle path, and brushed her until she gleamed. She is looking awesome.

brrr

This week has been slow and unproductive. We've had lots of rain and temperatures ranging from the 30's to the 50's, and the horses spent most of the week inside. I rode L on Tuesday and it was a terrible ride, but what does one really expect from a 4yo who has been pent up all week? Poor thing has completely shed out her winter coat out so she's had to also wear her blanket again.

Today is looking a bit better, and aside from it being quite windy, the sun it out and the temperature is back in a reasonable range. I really need to ride every day for the remainder of the week before the RISPCA ride event on Sunday. This will be L's first time in a trailer since the day I bought her so let's hope that she behaves herself! One of the bonuses of having an OTTB is that you know they're used to being shipped all over the place. I am not expecting any drama from her, though she may get excited at the ride. One of the reasons I took her to the show a few weekends ago was so that I could get an idea of how she would act around a bunch of strange horses. She was totally fine and her only issue revolved around the ring not having a gate on it, but this weekend's event is a nice long trail ride and ironically my little racehorse is much more at home on the trail than in a ring.

I did a ton of disgusting horsey laundry last night. I soaked everything in piping hot water with some detergent and some OxiClean (best stuff ever) for a long time before throwing the pads in the wash, and it seems to have worked well. Only a white baby pad had to go through the wash cycle twice, the second time with a touch of bleach added. So now our gear will be nice and fresh for the weekend.

new addition

Meet our new puppy, a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Kenny is still deciding on a name :) She's almost six weeks old. We can bring her home on May 10 but today I went to meet her and her litter at the breeder's house. Talk about love at first sight.

fun over fences

See our jump school from today.

after bathtime

houdini

Some days I go to get Lucy out of her paddock and she's got her halter over one ear and hanging off her face. Other days the halter is still in perfect form but laying on the ground in the middle of her paddock. Since we've added a fly mask into the mix, I'll sometimes find her like this:

"Are you going to stop laughing at me and feed me?"

The good news is that she seems to be totally fine now. She trotted out sound yesterday but I chose to give her an extra day off just to make sure she was 100%, and my plan was to ride her this morning before work. I do the overnight on the ambulance on Wednesdays so I have to go early in the morning to do her stall, and the barn owner brings her in for me in the afternoon. Well this morning I was running behind so by the time I cleaned her stall and did everything else I had to do, I didn't have time to ride. So she gets another easy day today, and I'll ride tomorrow.

progress, well, almost.

Lucy warmed up beautifully today, jumped three little crossrails, and pulled up lame. Coming down to the third crossrail she felt like she was cross-cantering and then she had a little stumble and once we landed I knew something was wrong. I pulled her up and you'll hear me say in the video, "Is she lame??". I let her walk for about ten minutes, then tried a little trot, and she still felt off. I trotted her out for Kenny, which is at the end of the video below. He thought it was her left hind. I untacked her and cold hosed all of her legs even though I couldn't find any heat, and then trotted her out for Frank, who couldn't see anything wrong, so maybe the cold hosing worked. I gave her some bute with dinner. Hopefully she just tweaked something. I was so bummed because she really was going so nicely.

Here's the video.

going in a straight line: way too much to ask.

Lucy and I hacked across the street to a show at the neighbouring barn today. We weren't showing; I just wanted to introduce her to the horse show scene. She walked over there and through the crowd like she owned the place but then was not happy about having to go into the warm-up ring.

Here are some photos:

(a tantrum)

oh! here we are trotting like a normal horse and rider in a straight line.

prancy!

a moment of quiet :D

sunshine on a cloudy day

And to top it all off, I can see some faint dapples starting to come through.

an open gate is not an invitation.

Lucy and I had a little discussion about the gate to the outdoor today. I decided a good challenge would be to leave it open so that she could learn that just because the gate is open, does not mean you can run through it whenever you please.

We warmed up nicely and then the barn owner came over to say hello, so I stopped on the rail about 10 feet away from the gate and we had a nice chat. Lucy must have thought we were done for the day so when I tried to ask her to walk past the gate, she got 3/4 of the way past the gate and threw a little tantrum. I sat quietly in the saddle, kept my outside leg on her so that she couldn't side step out of the ring, and kept contact with my inside (left) rein so that she couldn't turn to the right and get out that way. Her tantrum lasted for maybe ten seconds, at which point she completely gave up and walked off like a nice horse, and got some praise and then the whole thing was forgotten about. She then proceeded to w/t/c on some nice soft contact for half an hour with the gate wide open and nary a step towards it. Good horse. As a little reward for being such a good girl, I stopped at the grocery store and bought out their entire stock of reject apples (3 packages/18 apples) for a grand total of $4, since I've found them hard to get lately. Maybe someone else caught on to the bruised apple section at the grocery store and is buying them for their pony ;)