March showers bring...?

I'm sitting inside now with my husband watching basketball, lamenting this sad, rainy day / weekend. Luckily, I was able to work with both girls yesterday & made some good progress!

We'll start with Miss Meadow. I will need to get some pictures of me riding her soon, so that I can chart her progress photographically a little better, but until then, my written descriptions will have to do... First off, we're starting to get some shedding!! I don't think I've ever been so excited to have the horses start shedding--I hope it's a REAL sign that Spring is here to stay. But alas, I took Meadow to the indoor as I usually do on Friday afternoons, and I decided to really concentrate on trying to get some canter. Based on some tips & tricks I had been researching, I decided to try it a little differently by really holding her together into it, rather than trying to give her free rein & half-seat off her back. I also wanted to try to leg yield into it to set her up a little better. That was the plan, at least. You know what they say about plans...

So, we started to the left. I was getting decent leg yields, she had pretty good energy, was listening... all those good signs... but then, when I asked her to canter, rush rush rush. Ok, bring her back, try again. Again, rush rush rush. Okay, throwing the leg yield out the window, let's just try getting the depart into a corner. After about the 2nd try or so, she changed the rush rush rush to a kick-out / crow-hop combo. Actually, she threw a pretty decent buck one time too; enough to make me lose a stirrup, but luckily it was just the one, so not terribly scary. I would say we tried a good 5 or so times before FINALLY, she gave me a couple strides without resistance on the correct lead. I made her do it 2 more times to sink in & in our last attempt, we actually got half of a 20m circle on the correct lead. She was leaning in & terribly counter-bent, but I'll take it! The better news is that then, after a quick rest break, when we turned around to practice to the right, she picked that up right away. I was able to get full 20m circles to the right on two occasions, though again, leaning in & counter-bent. I was happy with that though, because I think she needed some proof that she could do it, and now that we both know that she can, we can start fine-tuning from here. Once we get the canter going, I really think that we can pass through Training Level fairly quickly as we're already practicing most First Level movements.

Making great progress with Elly!

When I got home, Erik scared the bejeezus out of me, because I didn't realize he was outside, but more importantly, we had a great conversation with our neighbor who volunteered to help us clear some of our back acreage for more horse pasture! That was super awesome & since I had Erik outside with me already, I had him help me a bit with Miss Elly! Now, here's the super exciting news. I had him hold the lunge-line again while I walked her around. He had to push her a few times, but she already is understanding what leg means and steering and brakes. Because she was doing so well at the walk--and incredibly calm--I decided to try a little trot. I expected 2 things: (1) her to get a little nervous feeling me bouncing around up there and (2) me to be thrown off balance initially depending on the trot she threw out. Well, with Erik's help, we asked her to trot and she picked up a steady, balanced, easy trot immediately. She kept her head still, her body straight, and didn't blink an eye about me being up there--and the trot was smooth & easy! We practiced walk/trot transitions for a bit and ended up doing a full trot circle each direction. To finish up, Erik let us off the lunge line & took a couple photos to commemorate the day! I was so proud of my little big girl! I have a feeling that she's going to surpass Meadow quickly... I'll probably get a full canter circle on her before Meadow masters it! All in all, in was a great day, and I'm itching to continue this great progress... Alas, the rain continues...

Slow progress...

As sporadic as my work has been with the girls, I do feel good after each session. However, the weather really has made my progress with them both quite slow. I sat on Elly under tack for the first time yesterday, practiced walking & halting on the lunge with no silliness, which is a great achievement. But then, I realized that today is exactly 5 months that I've owned her. Not much progress in that time period, which is frustrating. I have 2 more weekends between now & Erik & my trip, so I'm hoping to be able to walk & trot on the lunge, both ways, with basic steering, by the time we leave. If I'm able to work with her 3 days at a pop each weekend, like this past weekend, I don't think it'll be a problem. We'll see what mother nature throws at us (predicting 1-3" of snow again tomorrow... ugh)...

The girls enjoying a rare warm day!

The other thing that Elly & I are having to really work on is trailer loading. I have heard that drafts can be a bit more claustrophobic than other horses, and she definitely has a bit of that from her Friesian side. Before the winter settled in, I was feeding her in the trailer with much success, though she would come in, grab a bite, and then back out immediately. The one time I tried to close her in, she got herself twisted around & freaked out, only further cementing her fear of trailers. So, last weekend, I fed her in the trailer again with Brazynska as well. The first time she was very tentative about it, but the second time, she went right in. We even did a little field trip to the gas station. This weekend, I decided to try her on her own. She started to play the in-out game again and so we had a bit of a "discussion" about that until she finally would load and stand until I asked her to back out. She was definitely nervous through the entire thing but in the end, she did it fairly easily, so I feel like I won a major battle there. I will be trying again this weekend to see if it stuck. I really need to get her good with the trailer so that I can start bringing her places and desensitizing her to other surroundings. Meadow is very good with all of that because we did so much of it early on, and I want Elly to be just as good if not better!

Miss Meadow and I also had a good weekend together. I lunged her on Thursday evening & surprisingly, she was very "up" so I was able to work on her canter on the lunge much more successfully than usually. Then, on Friday, I trailered her over to my friend's indoor & we worked on a bit of everything. I tried collecting her up a little bit more to see if that would help hold her in the canter, but it was futile. I was able to get an almost full circle of canter to the right (which to be honest, she was breaking at the doorway entrance to the arena because she wanted to quit after being ridden for almost an hour), but the left was not good at all. She tried everything to avoid picking that up--wrong lead, kicking out, crow hops, speeding up, slowing down--until she finally gave me maybe 2 half-hearted strides before pooping out. Because she can do it on the lunge--though even there it's less balanced than to the right--I think it's a strength issue vs a pain issue which is an improvement over where we were. Her trot-work is coming along nicely; we're starting to do big-trot, little-trot sets and leg yielding. At the walk, I practiced leg-yields and the beginnings of turning-on-the-haunches. All in all, both of us were very tired after that ride! One of the first times I've made her sweat! :)

On Saturday, Erik & I decided to take our dog Rocky on a hike over the hills at the nearby park. I am gearing him up for a dog show in May & his left shoulder needs some conditioning as well. Since Meadow needs hind-end conditioning, it seemed like a great idea to take her as well, but I didn't want to ride while my husband walked, so he walked Rocky & I hand-walked Meadow. Up & down A LOT of hills. Good for my hind-end as well! It was a nice evening, & I think both animals really enjoyed it... I enjoyed it... hopefully the hubby did too, because we need to do that every weekend before Rocky's show as well... I've already decided that if he doesn't do well at the show in May that I'm giving up on that until winter, because I already have too much on my plate with the horses. Adding in dog showing is just not going to work if I want to stay married!! Haha!

Hiking the hills with my horse & pup, photo by Erik

Spring has sprung?

It has been a month since my last post, which is not terribly surprising considering the weather we've been having here. One day it's 50 & sunny, the next it's in the 20's & snowing. All these fluctuations & snowfalls have caused my pastures to become mud-city. Not fun. And even though it's mid-March, the horses are still holding on to their winter coats; very minimal shedding occurring.

This is supposed to be a good weekend though, starting out today with a sunny day in the 50's. I had the farrier out & for the first time ever, all my girls are barefoot! Because of the mud, we decided to keep Meadow barefoot until it dries out (she lost her last set of shoes ~2 weeks in), and we're trying Braz out to see if she will be okay without shoes. Meadow will get a full set around next time, weather & attitude permitting. :) Attitude-wise, she did great today for her trim. Elly got the prize for brat-horse. She gets very antsy when nervous. She is definitely going to be a spook & bolt type vs a spook & stop type.

Speaking of spooking & stopping, after the farrier finished, I took Meadow to my friend's indoor to do some work. We had a really great ride; she was responsive, forward, and listening. She did spook a couple times (not surprising since she hasn't been ridden consistently for a couple months now...), BUT she settled down immediately afterwards back to work. I was very proud of my 4--coming 5 yr old--brain. It will be interesting to see the difference between her & Elly.

During the ride, we worked on a bit of everything. We started with a nice, easy walk warm-up sprinkled with some walk leg-yields. Then did a trot warm-up with trot leg yields. Then, worked on maintaining a balanced, connected trot on the circle with lots of walk/trot transitions. To finish up the trot work, we practiced some small trot/big trot for the first time and she was really pushing for the big trot which was great. She wasn't able to stay through the entire time, but that's a strength thing, so as soon as we can get riding consistently and throw in some conditioning hillwork rides, I think her progress will be incredible. Finally, to cap off the session, we attempted canter each direction. Probably a combination of weakness & tiredness resulted in more bucking/crow-hopping than cantering (especially to the left), but we were at least able to get the depart on the correct lead once each direction. Again, hoping that will come as we work on the conditioning.

After getting home, I parked the trailer strategically so that I could practice trailer-loading with Elly. I am going to feed her in there on the weekends & start taking her on little trips (ie, gas station, around the block, etc). I need to get her comfortable with the trailer so that I can start taking her out to expose her to things. I would love to start doing that when Erik & I get back from our honeymoon in April. I have 4 weekends between now & then and A LOT to accomplish. Hope the weather cooperates... the weathermen are calling for snow on Monday already... so who knows... when will Spring officially spring??