Last Ride at the Old Barn

I went out to the barn on Saturday to ride my pony before her world turned upside down. The weather was finally cooperating and it was a toasty 22 degrees. The last few times that I've taken her out to work her she's felt a little off. Either a little stiff, a little ouchy on her feet, or possibly just a little crabby. I've been concerned about her and actually have a chiro appointment set up for her but last night she came out of her stall raring to go.

She actually started off a little naughty. For the last three months while I've been at this barn she hasn't ever reverted to the behaviors that she was doing at the previous barn. I'm sure it's because of the lack of tension in me and in her and because I haven't been putting as much pressure on her.

I thought I started out Saturday night the same way and actually my only plan was to walk and work on lateral stuff but something must have been different because she wanted SO badly to just canter around. Stiffly and with her head in the air. 

We got into a little bit of a fight, both of us are headstrong females so that does happen sometimes. Eventually after several minutes I got my point across that she needed to either listen to the bit or, preferably, my seat and then she turned into soft, forward, butter pony. After that we had a REALLY productive night and had some really nice moments of lateral work at walk and trot as well as some really nice moments of canter.

Then we did a photo shoot.

Pony brat loves admiring her pretty self in the mirror.

She is still seriously shedding as you can see by the pile underneath her. I did spend some time shortening and thinning her mane after this picture and its probably a little too short now but it'll grow out and it looks adorable :-)

Yesterday the move went really, really well! I didn't get my traditional pony in trailer picture because I led the way. This new barn seriously feels kind of like Area 51 or something. No one knows where it is and there's a secret Facebook group that I'm now a part of! Katai loaded on the first try with no balkiness and stepped off the trailer like she owned the place. We put her in with two other calm, nice horses and they proceeded to walk around ignoring eachother and grabbing bites of hay. I dropped my stuff off in the tack room and went home since she really just needed some time to settle in.

The owner sent me this picture later.

I took the whole day off today because I wanted a three day weekend and it seemed like a great way to celebrate being at the new barn. I'm planning on going out early in the afternoon to organize my stuff, that I just left in a pile yesterday, and ride.

It'll be interesting to see how she adjusts to the new barn. She was a wreck two barns ago and then at the last barn she was calm and quiet but of course she also spent all night every night in that barn so that's not too surprising. I'll have my fingers crossed that she settles right in on the crossties and I don't have to deal with bouncy naughty pony tonight.

More pictures to come!