Beautiful Saturday
Saturday I hit the barn as soon as I could muster up the energy (getting out of bed on the weekend is so hard sometimes). Following the fitness plan I found on H&H, we were starting off with 20minutes of tack walking. SO EXCITING!!!
bahahahah.
Not exciting at all. HOWEVER. I thought there might be a chance the drive around the corn fields closest to the barn would be dry enough to try. All the fields had some section under water and everywhere you walked, the ground squished. But it was so gorgeous outside, I couldn't help but hope the BO would let me give it a try. Please God! Just let us out of the arena this once!!
I casually chatted with the BO after pulling Dassah's mane. He was dragging the indoor right after lunch which meant A) the arena would be watered (thank the GOOD LORD!) and B) I could sweetly suggest that if he needed to be in the arena that maybe I could walk out around one of the fields. #pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.
Well, he wasn't going to take much of a lunch and should have the arena dragged/drug (what is it?) before too long. I thought about it a bit longer and had a hunch that maybe we should lunge first - she'd had two weeks completely off. I didn't make it out last weekend due to separating our new foster-to-adopt dog Ollie from our cat Frank. Frank thought I was Ollie while I was trying to free him from Ollie's mouth and bit me just above my wrist (on my arm). I ended up going to the ER Friday night (Valentine's Day) and was on major antibiotics for 7 days and my arm hurt like hell for the next three days. I know never to separate dogs but when he grabbed my cat, I hit CODE RED ALERT PANIC NOW mode and went in like a Tazmanian Devil. Michael said he thought the shelves were falling down in the kitchen (what?) - I'm skeptical because if it sounded like that, why did it take him so long to investigate? Shouldn't he be worried if it sounds like the shelves were coming down? (full disclosure, he did arrive and save the day but only after I had been shrieking for a solid minute. Frank was fine except for his mental state and being covered in dog slobber. He did break two claws and bled there for a bit but no external wounds. However, he spent two days in our basement crawlspace, not eating, drinking, or making eye contact. Luckily, I can say now he's back to living on the fridge and having meowing conversations with me at 6am because he's hungry.
Anyway, I couldn't move my hand very well, let alone hold a muck-fork or lift water buckets or master a lunge-line.
So, Dassah, two weeks off. Probably should lunge just to get her back functioning - she really needs to get some regular turnout (STUPID WINTER!). I know we need the chiro back out but that's not happening soon.
So, we lunge, she gets her bucks out, adjusts her back, and I mount up. We did some walking down the quarter and center lines and once we had completed the whole arena doing that, I dismounted, grabbed the mounting block, and went outside.
She was great! We've never ridden outside of the arena here - we had ground walked down this path before and she did spook at the farm equipment parked at the corner of the field so I did wonder what she was going to do there but I had a plan. Red Mare is VERY treat motivated and I am not above bribery so I grabbed some treats when we were tacking up. I could hear George Morris very sternly reprimanding me to NEVER feed treats from the hand and felt a little ashamed (I had audited a clinic he gave at an old barn and he chastised a girl because her horse was nibbling his hand at one point). Dear GM, sorry I'm not sorry for disappointing figment-of-my-imagination you.
Anway, here are pictures of our 20minute talk walk! We had one spook (her trademark drop and spin) when a leaf rustled to our right. I wasn't too surprised though and managed to keep my seat well enough to not grab her mouth but for a little with the reins. Other than that, she was a dream! Come on spring, you can do it!
Here's a view of our outdoor pond. I mean arena.
And lastly, a couple of attempted full-horse shots. What a dope-face she has here! I think SprinklerBandit would agree we need a different bridle for aesthetics.
bahahahah.
Not exciting at all. HOWEVER. I thought there might be a chance the drive around the corn fields closest to the barn would be dry enough to try. All the fields had some section under water and everywhere you walked, the ground squished. But it was so gorgeous outside, I couldn't help but hope the BO would let me give it a try. Please God! Just let us out of the arena this once!!
I casually chatted with the BO after pulling Dassah's mane. He was dragging the indoor right after lunch which meant A) the arena would be watered (thank the GOOD LORD!) and B) I could sweetly suggest that if he needed to be in the arena that maybe I could walk out around one of the fields. #pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.
Well, he wasn't going to take much of a lunch and should have the arena dragged/drug (what is it?) before too long. I thought about it a bit longer and had a hunch that maybe we should lunge first - she'd had two weeks completely off. I didn't make it out last weekend due to separating our new foster-to-adopt dog Ollie from our cat Frank. Frank thought I was Ollie while I was trying to free him from Ollie's mouth and bit me just above my wrist (on my arm). I ended up going to the ER Friday night (Valentine's Day) and was on major antibiotics for 7 days and my arm hurt like hell for the next three days. I know never to separate dogs but when he grabbed my cat, I hit CODE RED ALERT PANIC NOW mode and went in like a Tazmanian Devil. Michael said he thought the shelves were falling down in the kitchen (what?) - I'm skeptical because if it sounded like that, why did it take him so long to investigate? Shouldn't he be worried if it sounds like the shelves were coming down? (full disclosure, he did arrive and save the day but only after I had been shrieking for a solid minute. Frank was fine except for his mental state and being covered in dog slobber. He did break two claws and bled there for a bit but no external wounds. However, he spent two days in our basement crawlspace, not eating, drinking, or making eye contact. Luckily, I can say now he's back to living on the fridge and having meowing conversations with me at 6am because he's hungry.
Anyway, I couldn't move my hand very well, let alone hold a muck-fork or lift water buckets or master a lunge-line.
So, Dassah, two weeks off. Probably should lunge just to get her back functioning - she really needs to get some regular turnout (STUPID WINTER!). I know we need the chiro back out but that's not happening soon.
So, we lunge, she gets her bucks out, adjusts her back, and I mount up. We did some walking down the quarter and center lines and once we had completed the whole arena doing that, I dismounted, grabbed the mounting block, and went outside.
She was great! We've never ridden outside of the arena here - we had ground walked down this path before and she did spook at the farm equipment parked at the corner of the field so I did wonder what she was going to do there but I had a plan. Red Mare is VERY treat motivated and I am not above bribery so I grabbed some treats when we were tacking up. I could hear George Morris very sternly reprimanding me to NEVER feed treats from the hand and felt a little ashamed (I had audited a clinic he gave at an old barn and he chastised a girl because her horse was nibbling his hand at one point). Dear GM, sorry I'm not sorry for disappointing figment-of-my-imagination you.
Anway, here are pictures of our 20minute talk walk! We had one spook (her trademark drop and spin) when a leaf rustled to our right. I wasn't too surprised though and managed to keep my seat well enough to not grab her mouth but for a little with the reins. Other than that, she was a dream! Come on spring, you can do it!
Here's a view of our outdoor pond. I mean arena.
And lastly, a couple of attempted full-horse shots. What a dope-face she has here! I think SprinklerBandit would agree we need a different bridle for aesthetics.
Hehe. I'm always a fan of buying new bridles. :-)
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