friday foto finish

TGIF, y'all!! I've been making daily pilgrimages to the barn for a couple weeks now for a variety of reasons.... some very practical (like giving Doozy her ulcergard!), and others... more just relating to keeping my happy place front and center. You know how that goes sometimes!

Anyway, tho, so much barn time means I'm constantly snapping random pictures that don't always fit neatly into standalone blog posts, but are still memorable or pretty in their own right... So here they are!

This time of year makes for the BEST dusk rides --- esp when we accompany our friends who are out doing fitness sets on the hills. Obvi Charlie isn't doing trot sets at this moment in his life, but he can still hang out and enjoy the show!

The weather has been so mild, tho.... Literally drove out the driveway past the 'rough board' boys, and *boom*!! Nap-O'Clock!! Just look at 'em all!!!

Doozy, meanwhile, basically always has chill vibes in the field. There she is, on the far right side of this frame... Good girl just chilled at the round bale (you can kinda see the dark hay ring behind her) waiting for turn-in while the rest of the ladies jockeyed for position at the gate. 

She's getting more comfortable with all the little ins and outs around the barn too --- like stopping to sip from the central water trough when coming and going!

Lol, Charlie has always been comfortable around the barn tho... Maybe too comfortable!

This time of year is kinda my favorite, tho. Longer days, mild weather, growing grass and pretty spring flowers!

Makes for way more opportunities to ride outside! And Doozy's getting to be pretty solid at all the outdoor riding spaces (tho we haven't been back out into the fields in a long time). Here you see some of the jumps we practiced the other day --- including this related distance from X to low caution panel.

 

we also had a fun (but dusty!) indoor ride one night with four horses and these fun diagonal trot poles --- we basically just did one big train of trotting thru everything, occasionally "shuffling the deck" if horses were approaching different diagonals at the same time. All the horses got totally into it, tho, and it was a fun way to all have a good time sharing small spaces!

The dressage ring, meanwhile, is getting easier for us too! Not "easy" yet -- no no, there's too much activity with the lesson shed row right across the driveway and ponies and kiddos constantly coming and going... It's going to take time to fully normalize. But we're getting there! In this ride, I set up 3 ground poles spaced on a gently bending line about 18' apart center to center. Trots well, and also canters in quiet one-stride distances. Doozy nailed it!

Forsythia season is the best season, change my mind.

And bath season!! It was 70* earlier this week so BOTH ponies got their first real big true bath of the year!! Not a day too soon, either, bc somebody (not naming any names) like sleeping in her pee... ew!

Oh, said someone also got a fresh little wound. Doesn't seem serious, but apparently bled quite a bit, plus kept oozing for a while. I think it was pretty fresh-ish when I brought her in. Luckily not on her cellulitis leg, but we'll keep an eye on it all the same -- and she spent the night in a standing wrap just in case!

Anyway, tho, the house critters are also well. Here we get a "between the ears" shot of my fat house cat Martini raptly watching me edit the gif of Icee doing Icee things lol....

He IS, after all, an entertaining critter. Terrifying, sure. But entertaining!

So ya know. That's about all we've been up to lately. It's turning into a really pleasant end to winter (knocking on wood). Anyone else looking forward to the weekend??