Loosey Goosey

This is what she felt like today

One thing that's been amazing to see at the new barn is how much the turnout is helping Katai stay fit and loose.

At the last couple of barns we were fighting a losing battle with her fitness. Two barns ago at least I had an outdoor and a bit of, albeit flat, outdoor space to ride in. At Janes, unless I could con someone into riding down the road with me or if I could work out with the neighbor to ride in the outdoor I had I could only ride in the indoor and both of those were tough to arrange.

On top of that at both of the last barns Katai's turnout was only in a small paddock. She could canter around a bit but it was flat and small and unless she was really motivated to run around there wasn't much real movement.

We win at selfies

Now I have all sorts of outdoor space to ride in even if I never went on the trails since just the space around the arena, near the barns, and down the driveway is safe and roomy for riding. We also have a nice large outdoor that Katai doesn't have meltdowns in (mostly thanks to S2) which helps as well.

Even better, Katai is in a huge pasture with other horses! She has two palomino friends, that look like twins, and another paint and they all get along really well. The pasture is huge and hilly just like how we kept our horses as I was growing up. Walking to the end to graze on it's own is a good workout and is really helping to keep her muscles loose and definitely adding some fitness. In addition she's been more careful about where she's putting her feet since she can't just drag them along like she could at the last barn.

Plus, S2 is really helping me to work with Katai on getting her to relax the blocked tension she has had. She's always gotten really tight through her shoulders if anything is going on that she's unsure about and also, I'm finding out now, has carried a lot of tension through her hips. Like me with my shoulders I think that she's just been that way for so long that she didn't even know there was a different way to do it until S2 came along and showed her.

I didn't get many pony pictures so her's another puppy picture

It's part of my homework to keep working with her on it but it's also clear how much she's already let go, or will let go if you ask correctly. Her stride, which was already much improved at Jane's, has gotten even more buoyant and loose and it's easier to keep her from getting locked up. I also have tools on the ground so that if she does lock up and threaten to rear I can dismount, address on the ground, and then remount and have a nice soft, loose pony which certainly wasn't the case before.

All of these things led to a really nice ride today where she was right with me, loose, relaxed, pushing from behind and really trying for the whole ride. She, of course, had the wrong answer to things sometimes but now when I ask again differently, or do a minor correction she just melts into it and keeps trying. It was an amazing ride and made watching the rest of the team leave for the show even more bitter sweet. Oh well, soon Katai will be on that trailer too!

The Move

At this point Katai and I should be REALLY good at this. Unfortunately the spring weather after being locked up all winter between her barn and her paddock, the lack of trailer loading practice since last summer, and the lack of even much ground work since last fall combined to make for a very fractious beast. That added to my stress which was also made worse by the fact that I was moving Friday evening, had afternoon plans on Saturday, and was flying out on Sunday.

I knew that it was going to be really tight to get to the barn Saturday and Sunday and still be ready to fly out. Luckily this is a short trip and I'll be back on Tuesday morning but the timing just really sucked.

Then, as if I needed more stress, Friday was one of those days where nothing went right. I'd blocked off my calendar at work to leave early which I normally have the ability to do but something came up last minute that I needed to take care of which meant I got to the barn late.

I'll spare you all the little things that went wrong but let's just say it involved nearly running out of gas, almost getting lost, lots of being stuck behind red lights while the trailer wasn't, and a stubborn pony that took almost an hour to load.

In the end Katai got in the box stall on the trailer after trying to load her in the two horse straight load at the back (before I realized there was a box stall option) and she had a nice safe trip. I also made it safely to the barn if a bit later than the trailer, and she settled into her amazingly clean stall to munch on tasty looking hay while shooting angry mare faces at her neighbors.

After getting her settled in at her stall in the upper barn I went to the lounge to do paperwork with S2. Since it was late we decided to try to find space for my tack the next day since they're still over full and don't have a locker for me yet. I checked on Katai one more time to find her still happily eating her hay, drinking her water, and making angry mare faces at her neighbors.

Saturday morning I went out early and had happy tears in my eyes when I saw her out in a huge pasture with other mares, in the warm sun. She looked so happy and ever after our disagreements the prior day she came trotting up to me and walked politely with me to the lower barn for some exposure to the new grooming space. I'll admit that ample peppermints were involved.

She was nervous and stressy standing in the cross ties but perfectly happy to walk nicely around the arena and then acted as ear perking motivation for M's gelding who was getting pictures taken. She always impresses me in situations like that even if I'm slightly dismayed that she still doesn't want to stand nicely in the crossties in a new space. I ran out of time on Saturday to ride but that wasn't a bad thing. She got to stand tied twice and got groomed as well as getting to see the arena so that was good and we were able to find a temporary solution for my saddle, bridle, helmet, and grooming stuff.

Then on Sunday I went out in the morning again and had a tight schedule since I also had to get Veggie dropped off at the sitters and get to the airport by 1:00. I not only made it to the barn and managed to get Katai standing well enough to get her tacked up, I actually rode! I was a short ride but she felt amazing and behaved really well so it made sense to keep it short and sweet. That ride really enforced for me that I made the right decision to move her. After being out in the pasture with the other horses she felt loose and forward. She didn't have the stiffness that we have been dealing with off and on and although she was still a bit tense she was very rideable. I'm really looking forward to having a better baseline of fitness on her as well as the looseness that comes with her being able to be out running around in a huge pasture. Plus hopefully happy pony will be better behaved pony.

I still need to get some more pictures and do a barn tour post but it'll have to wait since I'm in Cleveland tonight and flying back tomorrow. I'm planning to get out the barn tomorrow night after work and I can't wait to see my pony and ride!!

Yay! Boarding!

I found a place!!!!

I really love where Katai is now but with no arena, a sketchy pasture (used to be an alfalfa field 0_0) and nobody to ride with I have been seriously considering moving her. The problem is that the closest boarding stable and the most reasonable is also over crowed and has poor pasture spaces with many, many horses per field plus it is way more expensive just for pasture board.

This barn is slightly further away from home but almost exactly the same distance from work. It has a huge indoor coverall arena, an outdoor round pen, trails and a nice outdoor riding space, arena with grass footing. There aren't too many boarders and the woman who owns that place has exceptional horse keeping knowledge. She only deworms if she knows what the worm count is, rotates pastures and is willing to dry lot and manage turnout which is so huge for Katai!

















 Best of all the board is exactly what I will be paying now where she is for winter and only a little more expensive then I have been paying for the summer plus I can move in soon! It looks like I may be able to move her as soon as next Sunday although it will depend partially on Dan since I know I didn't give him much warning.

I can't wait to be able to ride her inside a nice safe space, ride with other people and be able to ride during the winter.

I was going to get more pictures but it was getting dark and its always a little weird taking pictures as the owner is walking you around. Next time I will get arena pictures :)

I can't wait!!!