Playing Catchup

Free lunging from the Sunday where I flew out to Seattle

Momentum is an interesting thing. It's not that I don't have information to share, in fact I almost feel like I have too much information to share, it's more that I just haven't been able to convince myself to sit down and write.

Last year I started to really struggle with my seasonal depression but this year I started taking my vitamin D way earlier so I'm actually doing well. Beyond just being tired recovering from my Seattle work trip I'm feeling great.

Last weekend I rode Saturday-Sunday and then gave her Monday off before my lesson on Tuesday. In those days I had a lesson on Sunday and a lesson on Tuesday. The Sunday lesson we worked a bit on canter and some shoulder in.

Tiny dog is a ham and I think he missed me :)

We did two exercises, one was leg yielding to center line away from the long side. Once we hit X we made a 10 meter circle in the direction of the bend and then, figure eight style, changed the bend at X and did another 10 meter circle towards the other long side. Back at X we'd leg yield back towards the original wall we'd started from.

The second was one that we've done before where we'd shoulder in along the long side, midway down the side we'd go across the diagonal, change the bend prior to hitting the wall and cue for canter. In canter we'd do a 20 meter circle at the end of the arena and then go back to trot and do it again. I LOVE this exercise and Katai does too. We did so much better this lesson than we have in the past and the SI was clearly improved.

Little blurry and tough to tell, but that's a hot tub boat on Lake Union

On Tuesday we did a bunch more canter including shallow loops to work on our counter canter going into 20 meter circles where we'd spiral in and out. Going to the left it was pretty funny because she wanted to half pass to the center rather than move straight. Not what we were asking for and we were able to correct it but talk about an over achiever!

We also worked a lot more on SI and it's feeling SO MUCH BETTER!! It's actually starting to flow a bit more and Jane mentioned that she's impressed with our quick improvement. We worked a lot on the concept of me lifting her with my seat to control the sitting trot rather than sitting down into her back to control the sitting trot. Or as Jane says, "bounce her up with your seat". There were magical moments but they didn't last long and it would take me awhile to get it back. When it worked though it really worked so I'm excited to keep working on this.

Someone had asked for a picture of my Ariat coat.
Here it is, courtesy of the AirBnB Bathroom mirror 

In other news I started the first clip of the season today. I got almost all the hair off and got the lines pretty good. Tomorrow I'll just clean everything up. Poor girl is a bit moth eaten tonight and poor Jane probably wondered what I did to her when she saw her at evening feeding. Oh well, I'll finish getting her cleaned up tomorrow. I also got her bridle path cut but I still need to "pull" her mane, do some work on her tail, and I'd like to do one more bath before it gets too cold.

In sad news, her feet are looking pretty thrushy. During most of the year I was keeping up with it but after the past month were I wasn't at the barn as much they've back slid a bit. It will be my focus for this month and hopefully I can get it cleaned up right away!

Ahead of Schedule

Sometimes it's been easy for me to feel discouraged lately. I so miss taking lessons and the consistent progress that you can make with feedback like that. I've also been lacking consistency this winter for a few reasons and of course that means a lack of progress as well. 

But sometimes it is so clear that we have come so far and tonight was one of those times.

Squeeeeee! Look at her :) 

(Not at my messy lines)

She was soooo good! From last fall when I couldn't get near her with a running clipper to tonight with her standing stock still, even falling asleep sometimes, while I got both sides clipped. Tomorrow I'm going to bring it the rest of the way back in more of a trace clip but this was a great place to end while she was still being good. It's a little higher in the front than it should be but for my first time clipping a horse I'll take it!

Look at her little clipped spots!! She is just the most adorable little thing in the world.

Before this we had a great, if slightly discouraging, ride (so much for my plan from last week). She was feeling fresh and slightly naughty most likely because it's the first time I've ridden in about two weeks. She didn't do anything really bad but she was resistant and was really having trouble bending to the left. This is normal for her but she was completely ignoring my leg and in January I was starting to feel like she really had that figured out. She was getting so soft and nice and bendy so going back to stiff pony was tough for me. It's not like I can expect her to just maintain on two weeks off but still rough.

Tomorrow my plan is to finish clipping and either ride or lunge. I'd rather lunge her but last week I was having trouble getting her to bend to the left on the lunge and at least when I'm on her back I have more ability to enforce it so we'll see. Then on Wednesday she gets a well deserved break :)

Barn Update and Blanket Followup

So the new barn is awesome, like really really awesome.

                 The barn she'll be in

The atmosphere is so different than my current barn with everyone smiling and welcoming me and enjoying the fact that I own a pony. The owner was accommodating about not feeding her grain (she owns ponies and understands the risk of founder) and we even agreed on a discount since I provide my own supplements with a little grain included to keep Katai happy.

I set up the tour thinking that there were two 10x10 stalls available which is smaller than I would like but for a 13.2 hand pony probably wouldn’t be too bad. However, I found out that one of the 10x12s (which have their own private tack lockers) had JUST opened up so I took that one instead. I also discovered that during the summer the horses only come in for their meals and are outside the rest of the time which is even better than I thought it would be.

   The other heated barn with attached heated arena :)

Stall board will be a huge adjustment for me. The most I’ve ever kept a horse in a stall before was during the night time on the most frigid days of the winter when with the wind chill it was close to -30 degrees. That was only a few days a year and only overnight. I’ve always felt that horses are healthier and happier when they get to be outside all the time but there are a few things that have been making rethink that idea.

One issue I’ve been having with pasture board is the lack of supplementation by the barn owner/staff. I’ve been managing but as much as I would like to I just can’t make it to the barn everyday and there is absolutely no way I can make it to the barn twice a day. When I can get there consistently 4-5 days a week it’s not too bad and at least she is getting the majority of her weekly amount. The problem is with weeks like this one where I planned on going out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but now we are getting dumped on with snow both today and Tuesday so I doubt I’ll make it out. That cuts the days she is getting supplements down to 2-3 and that’s just not enough especially with the huge difference in her when she doesn’t receive her supplements.

The other issue is blanketing. I work really, really hard to make sure she has the appropriate blanket on at the appropriate time and always make an extra trip to remove wet blankets but it is extremely tough sometimes. Again, on days like today when there is a huge snowstorm I just can’t always drive out there and risk my safety to check if her blanket is getting wet and the barn owner certainly won’t check. Stall board will fix this as although they won’t blanket her they will remove a wet blanket which is really the bigger concern at this point.

I really think this is a great opportunity for both of us and I’m looking forward to feeling like a “real” boarder!

In other news my blanket system is working great. She’s been wearing the 100 gram for a while now and I ordered the 200 gram last week. It’s supposed to get here today just in time for the colder weather, we are supposed to have lows in the single digits this week. I also ordered two bridle tags, one that says 100 gram and one that says 200 gram to attach to the liners so that I can keep track.

Pony is going to be cozy AND styling and, really, what more could any girl want :-)