Moving: Complete

Rush got shuffled over to her new pasture yesterday, and I went out today to finish the move by trucking my stuff across the street into the tack room over there. Many thanks to the groom (Elio? Edilio? I can't remember his name :/ ) who helped me move my tack trunk, cause it started pouring while I was trying to move and if he hadn't put the trunk in his little golf cart thingie I would have gotten drenched trying to drag it over. As is I got pretty soaked.

I'm pretty unimpressed with the pasture. It's got more grass than her old one, so she can spend all day grazing, but a large chunk of it is just straight up mud and apparently they use it to dump manure in, because there are a bunch of piles down towards the bottom. The electric fence is sagging on one side so it only comes up to maybe 2.5 feet.. good thing Rush isn't adventurous! Those two trees are the only ones in the pasture to provide shelter from the rain, and they don't do a great job at that. Not that Rush is smart enough to stand under them anyways; she's the one in the blue blanket off in the distance getting dumped on.

Pros to the move: tack room has electricity! And also windows that actually close! I'm hoping it'll be a little more temperature controlled in there so that my things aren't /always/ damp. Soggy helmet=gross. Seriously.

The little mini barn is pretty nice, and the stalls are decently roomy. The one thing I'm confused about is the shavings.. they literally use a light dusting to cover the stall (barely!). Why even bother?

I brought Rush in out of the rain and let her chill in a stall as I moved everything over/got everything organized, then gave her a quick grooming and tossed her back outside. Right now I'm super confused about the pasture situation; from my talk with the BO I was under the impression that having her brought in at night/during rough weather was an option on the table but one that I had to pay more for. Then today I got a text saying they brought the horses in for the night cause it was raining pretty hard. I'll have to talk to her and get that sorted out; ideally Rush would come in at night because her coat's still pretty thin and her blanket, although waterproof, is getting pretty wet from the constant downpour. If she was brought in at night I could have them switch off her waterproof blanket for the non-waterproof one, and then the waterproof one would get a chance to dry off and it would be great.

I Love(d) My Pony

This was going to be a post about how much I love Rush and how fantastic our ride was yesterday. Yes, was. Because right now I'm not too thrilled with her.

Today I got a missed call from the BO during lecture and she left a voicemail (so obv I was freaking out for the half hour it took for lecture to finish). Turns out Rush has been chewing on the fences, so now she has to get moved to a different pasture with electric tape instead of wooden posts. Unfortunately, the new pasture doesn’t have a stall/really any shelter at all besides a few trees, and now I’ll have to pay $100 extra a month if I want her to get stalled for the night instead of staying out in the cold. I am so not amused right now.

Plus I'm gonna have to lug all my heavy ass tack across the street into a new tack room. I'll probably spend my time tomorrow doing that/settling in to the new tack room, and won't have time to ride.

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS RUSH

THIS IS WHY

Trail in the Rain

I had trekked over to her stall in a light drizzle. The outdoor ring was a mess; not only was it a swamp but piles of slippery leaves were scattered across it. Definitely not riding in there today. I had trekked over in a light drizzle.. it definitely wasn't lightly drizzling anymore. The second I took her blanket off and started going at her with a curry comb the soft mist turned into a pretty significant downpour.

Whoops! My inclination to ride went out the window. I had been a smarty pants and not brought any sort of waterproof jacket, so my options of getting to the indoor ring were a) let my saddle die in the rain or b) look ridiculous by throwing her blanket on over my tack and then awkwardly hang it up while I ride. Neither option was super appealing, and I also didn't really want to walk all the way over there in the pouring rain. But I was at the barn, and my opportunities to ride are few and far between.

My solution ended up being a bareback ride in the rain down a gravel road that supposedly looped back around to Rush's paddock. I left her blanket on, because she is a princess and hates getting wet, and also because a little bit of padding would help with the whole dear god why is your spine right there thing. So I threw her blanket back on, put on a bridle (I'm not /that/ ambitious) and awkwardly mounted off a not-quite-tall-enough bucket. Rush was an angel standing still while I awkwardly hung off her side and it took me a couple times to get on board, but in the end it happened and all I have to say is I'm glad nobody was there to see that.

So off we went into the wilderness. Rush was crunching gravel all over the place with her new shiny shoes and didn't mind the footing at all, so I nudged her into a slow trot and she gave me a comfortable, ambling jog. Her trot was something I usually had to work for 20 minutes in the ring to achieve- soft, supple, superb, supremely awesome.. okay, I ran out of S words, but you get the picture.

And then I got this crazy idea of, hey, maybe we'll canter. So we did. And somehow, it was the most freeing experience I've had. Just me and her, charging down this street in the pouring rain. It felt good to let go of worries and expectations that come with arena riding- is she engaging? why can't I get that bend? and just connect with her.

The gravel road we adventured on, but in the sun this time :)

Snapshot 1

When I got the the stables today, Rush was hanging out in her stall like the little sheltered show pony she is. I stuck my head in through the window to say hi to her and she came over for some scratches, then I walked around the outside of the shelter to get into the tack room. I heard her walking out of the stall and turned around, ready to feel loved because she was coming out to visit me.. nope! She saw her neighbor over at the fence, got really excited, and shot off towards the fenceline. Unfortunately she hasn't quite gotten used to the uneven ground, so there was some hilarious feet shuffling and she ended up verrry slowly trotting over to the fence. Live and learn, Rush.

Jumping!

I was a daredevil and popped Rush over a little crosspole today, and it felt awesome. Probably the first time I’ve jumped in 4 months? Maybe? She was a champ up to it and didn’t try to pull anything, god bless her, even though she hasn’t been pointed at a jump in at least 6 months. It’s sooo tempting to start jumping her again but I’m waiting until she gets her feet done and some shoes and pads get put on those front feet so that nothing goes wrong that can be prevented. Her front feet are honestly starting to scare me and the farrier can’t come too soon. I had no idea feet could go downhill so fast!