Let's Bounce!

Yesterday was a pleasantly chilly day, in that I wore three layers of clothes and did not take them off to ride. It was gratefully sunny all day so I didn't have to worry about riding in the rain, since Rush has taken a disliking to the indoor ring and every time I ride in there it turns out.. interesting.. to say the least.

I was really pleased with how our ride went; I feel like we made some good progress and worked through some things. I have a tendency of avoiding problems and ignoring them instead of working through them because working through them is boring and takes patience, but I've gotten better at making myself slow things down and focus on getting her to respond well regardless of what we're actually doing. In this case she got a little hyped up cantering and was very tense trying to anticipate my canter cues, so we slowed things down and worked on her waiting for my actual cues at the walk and trot, then worked back up to the canter.

I did some no-stirrup work at the beginning of the ride, as per No Stirrup November, and my legs are still pretty pathetic but I think I'm getting better. Usually I do posting trot without stirrups to warm her up without asking anything demanding so I can focus on myself. This time I interspersed it with sitting trot whenever I thought I couldn't post anymore, and really focused on staying centered. I don't usually take the time to catalog where my body weight is shifting but noting all my imbalances and trying to fix them was a super cool feeling and I'm definitely going to start coaching myself more through my rides.

I didn't want to do too much jumping because I didn't have much time to cool her down, so we went through a little gymnastic set up at the bottom of the ring. It was a bounce of a pole to an xrail to a low vertical. The first few times we went through she was a speed demon and it took her a long time to settle after running through but she progressively slowed down and came back faster until I was really satisfied with how she was going through it. We ran through a couple times after that so I could focus on me; I really aimed for staying soft and upright up to the first jump, then staying up and out of her way over the bounce, and gathering myself and her back quickly afterwards. All in all I'm really proud her and I think we're figuring out the whole bounce thing!

First Frost

The girl who usually drives me out of the barn on the weekends flew home for her birthday, and it's a three day weekend and I couldn't justify not going to see my pony so I reserved a zipcar for this morning (and tomorrow morning!). I was a little apprehensive about driving cause the roads around here can be kinda crazy and confusing and I haven't driven in a while so I'm a bit rusty, but it was early enough in the morning that there was pretty much no traffic and it was a lovely drive and made me realize I actually really miss driving! It's super relaxing and also coincidentally the only time I can crank up the music obnoxiously loud and sing in my incredibly horrific voice without worrying that I'm bothering other people (re: anybody who lives on my floor because these walls are paper thin).

It was actually ridiculously cold this morning and I'm really glad I put on a last-minute third layer before going out, because I definitely needed it! I usually take off my layers while riding because I get too hot, but I kept everything on today and then some and was still a little frozen by the end. There was frost EVERYWHERE and even some icicles hanging off of jumps! This was my first riding experience in actual coldness and I have a lot to learn, like how to tack up without killing my fingers on cold metal.

Anywho, I ended up taking Rush out on a trail to warm up at the walk cause I actually had time to explore. It ended up being a really long gravelly road that crossed actual roads through some housing developments, so not really the type of trail I'd typically choose, but now I know what's down that direction and can explore the others.. which reminds me, I need to do some aerial recon to hopefully figure out the trail system a bit better. She was a little spooky at the road crossings, but it was just balkiness and some looking and nothing worse than that and we worked through it with some firm squeezes and maybe some teasing about scary landscaping rocks.

We probably trailed for a little under half an hour and then came back to the outdoor arena to get some real work done. I got some nice consistent trotting in, where she was solid and steady in the bridle instead of ducking under it like she's prone to do when she has energy. She started off a little fast and hollow but relaxed after I did some wacky patterns and serpentines to get her listening a little better.

There was a crosspole line set up down one side of the ring, and since I'm focusing on slow and consistent solid jumping I took her through the line at the trot a couple times before cantering. She was a trooper at the trot and didn't pull any shenanigans, although I did need to straighten her out a couple times. I really focused on pulling her together after each jump, since my bad habit is to throw everything away after a jump and praise her for just getting over it. I have to keep reminding myself that this is BAD and she needs to know that just jumping it isn't enough anymore, she has to keep listening afterwards.

Anyways, we trotted through it each direction a few times then cantered through it both ways. She was super responsive about waiting for the short spots and slowing down through the line. I have to be careful about asking for a longer spot because she shoots off after the jump. The first few times through cantering were a little iffy but each time through we focused on refining one more aspect (first time: wait for the short spot, second time: stay straight through the line, third time: stay slow after the second jump) and at the end she was cruising through pretty well :)

At this point I decided to make it more 'course like' and did some continuous jumping at the canter to work on staying in one rhythm without freaking out after each jump. She did pretty well until I asked her for a long spot over a downhill jump and then we became a freight train, but after I halted and made her turn around, trot over it, then canter back down in she settled back down. This is actually kinda huge because usually when she gets in trouble for something she freaks out and gets really hollow and anxious and ignored everything, so us being able to work through that was awesome.

I'm definitely going to start working on lead changes, but I have to figure out a plan of attack for them before I start because last time things didn't go too well and I ended up creating another problem even though she did start executing lead changes.

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!