Weekly Summary - Feb 27, 2015

Not much has been going on here.  Saturday I was still not feeling well and decided not to ride.  Later that afternoon my husband and I went out and built snow mounds in the paddock and put some carrots in them. I think Max enjoyed the diversion and the treats.  It was also the day I realized that he's starting to shed. Spring is on its way!

Om nom nom

Sunday wasn't too bad, but decided not to ride.

Monday it got colder but I did a mini desensitizing lesson with the pony. I brought out my umbrella to see how he would do.  He just kept trying to eat it.  I think I can count this as a +1 towards my obstacle goals.

Max says "Stop the shenanigans, just feed me already"

Tuesday was miserable.  I don't think it got above 10F and the wind really picked up in the afternoon.  The roads were starting to drift over. Max was a little crazy about the wind and was bucking and trotting around while I was getting his grain.

Wednesday, it was a tiny bit warmer so I decided to go on a quick ride. I threw on the bareback pad and we wandered around the pasture, then the woods for a bit. He was fairly good for me, just a little impatient to get back to the barn for his grain.

Too much ice to cross the creek. He's not disappointed.

 Friday was windy and snowy but we got a beautiful sunset along with more snowfall.

Yes, it's snowing with the sun out.

The Weekend

This past weekend was very horsey for me.

Saturday was the annual Horseman's Forum at Purdue University.  This year's topics were great and I learned so much.  Much better than last years.  There were discussions about forage quality, trailer and hitch safety, care considerations for older horses, and vaccinations relevant to our area. I learned so much and the speakers answered questions I didn't even know I had. 

Western saddle, english bridle, snaffle bit and cotton reins. This says something about me, I'm just not sure what yet.

We also had a beautiful weekend and the weather was warm.  Sunday morning I rode Max in western.  He has such a nice little western pleasure trot when he feels like doing it.  We ended up working a lot on consistency.  He would go nice, then speed up, especially when we were facing the barn.  He was also tripping quite a bit, but I think it's because his feet are getting long. Due to the weather, the farrier hasn't been able to make it out for a while. We still did a lot of trotting to start getting back into shape.

I do think he's starting to get the idea of moving those back legs over under saddle.  He didn't quite make it while I was riding, but came very close.  We did it well from the ground though.

Work is crazy this week. But if it's not too cold and I can get home before dark, I might be able to get some ground work in this week. That would put be back on track with my goals.

A Quick Ride

Sunday I finally got up the motivation to go ride Max. I only had a half hour to tack up and ride, so he got a quick curry and I threw on the bareback pad.  Parts of the property were still ice, despite the recent warm-up, so we had a lot of areas to avoid.  We mostly tooled around the pasture then went to walk through my "obstacle" of cut branches.  The front yard was mostly snow free and I wanted to do some trotting, but it also had a direct and very cold wind. We immediately turned back to the pasture. It has a nice windbreak. 

 The pasture was slick.

Max decided to "test" me while we were going through the branches obstacle. I was telling him to head slightly in the direction of the woods to go around some of the bigger stuff. He decided to turn to the left at the last minute towards the pasture and ended up getting tangled up in the branches enough that I hopped off to help him through.  He didn't freak out which I was very proud of. I also managed to get back on him using only a 4 inch branch to step up.   It wasn't pretty, but my goal is to be able to mount bareback from the ground.  This is just a precautionary measure in case I fall off on the trail and can't find a spot to get back on.