Doozy was down and out for about a week or so with some sort of generic hoof complaint. Suspected abscess, but also possibly just a bruise. I never saw her get truly hobble-y crippled - tho my barn manager said she was kinda hopping a bit while I was out of town for two days.
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| Salem the cat is less 'barn panther' and more... 'roll-y-poll-y guacamole' LOL |
Regardless, we never saw any drainage or defect but there were like two straight days of rainy muddy conditions that effectively produced nonstop foot soak conditions LOL.
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| he loves his sun puddles too |
And by the time I went to sit on the mare?? She was sound, yay!! But omg WILD. So wild omg. Not naughty at all, and not like, leaping and whistling around like she used to... But I was definitely sitting on
explosive material lol... And found it pretty....
not ideal to be sharing space and giving way to a group of lesson kiddos.
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| the red indoor is shorter length-wise but maybe wider than the big blue indoor. it's usually filled with beginner lessons tho, so we virtually never ride there |
That's apparently the reality of wintertime riding at this new place, tho. There are a LOT of lessons every weeknight, in both indoors. And the outdoor isn't lit, nor does the footing seem to tolerate winter wetness. Normally it's not a big deal for just sorta going through our paces, but it's basically impossible to properly school the mare indoors amid most lesson groups.
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| it's slightly spooky since it's lower relative to outside activity, but the dimensions are surprisingly pleasant! |
Fortunately, tho, we got lucky this weekend and found blocks of time on both days for getting into each indoor by ourselves! Obvi I would have preferred being outdoor anyway during daylight, but it's too wet and mucky. Alone indoors is good enough, tho!
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regardless, it's nice to have enough space to actually school the wild animal
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I hadn't ridden Doozy in the red square-ish indoor since one of our earliest days on the farm, when she found the ring unbearably spooky and distracting. Honestly, I've avoided it since then.
But, eh, I knew we needed space to just... canter, and school her through the wildness --- circling when we needed to circle, without risking collisions with wayward lesson kiddos who cut off entire ends of the ring (thus essentially shrinking what is already limited shared space....).
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| lookin majestic, Dooz! |
And we had some fun cavalleti options in there too -- 3 poles set in an arc through one corner, then I spaced lines of 2 slightly raised poles with one line at about 9' and the other at about 21'. Perfect for just kinda remembering our footwork and reaffirming gymnastic type practice, since it honestly feels like it's been forever.
And Doozy was good!! I wasn't sure how trotting the poles would go given her serious energy, but omg she could still trot the poles -- all of the exercises!! Good mare, yay for remembering your lessons <3
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| unfortunately i chose the wrong kit - these cookies had chocolate flavoring that the horses didn't love... |
Cantering was a little harder. Well, actually, the 3 poles bending around a corner went surprisingly well almost every single time --- definitely gonna try to replicate that exercise more often bc Doozy aced it!
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| Pork the Pig ate them happily tho <3 <3 |
The straight lines at slightly short distances were a little harder tho. Doozy was kinda back to making a bit of a bid for the fences, and I honestly just have a hard time, esp riding indoors, of knowing if I'm riding forward enough, too forward, or too backward. I guess that's why we do the ground poles tho -- it's a good barometer of our pace and balance, with relatively low consequences if we botch the exercises.
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| omg we got the big ring all to ourselves this weekend too!! and got to set up all our favorite exercises!! (spy that 21' line of big X's??) |
It was also a good session for tuning both our eyes up a bit, since I knew I wanted to jump this weekend -- after an almost 3 week hiatus. And y'all know me. It's like, if I didn't jump yesterday, maybe I've never actually jumped before
in my life LOL.
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| good girls get post ride snacks. well. bad girls too LOL, but doozy is good <3 |
We made it happen yesterday tho! I set my exercises conservatively --- gave myself an X with a placing pole set at 9', a line of Xs set at 21' (seems to be Doozy's comfortable schooling distance for a one-stride), and then everything else ranging in height from about 2' to 2'5.
It's so funny to me how shorter poles on shorter standards can make indoor jumps look GIANT... So I gave myself a break and made everything really inviting.
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| gotta love how effectively she snuffled that expensive platinum performance out of the way from her tasty grain morsels |
Doozy was still a bit wild tho omg... Started off with making a bit of a bid for the fences again. Not rudely, but definitely in a way that made me grateful for having set the placing pole at our warm up fence! And the one-stride grid actually rode great for us! Was visually interesting enough to make her not rush quite as much, and she stayed the straightest down the line that she ever has, good girl!!
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| just tryin to put some meat on these bones! |
The singles were all mostly fine too --- I just tried to stay really connected through my entire inseam (hip to heel!), and connected to the bridle too. We didn't have any crazy pearl-clutching moments, so that's nice, but it definitely felt a little rusty LOL, esp with landing in a slightly more unspooled canter!
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| "same" --- barn kitty, pleased with his 'catch' |
Tho, a nice moment was when Doozy jumped a nice fence off the short diagonal, kinda landed racing off, but then I turned her a bit unexpectedly to catch the other diagonal fence (sorta making a sweeping "C" shaped turn from one corner jump to the next) and she actually gathered herself up and waited to the fence. Good girl.
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| it's holiday season here in baltimore -- check out these amazing parade participants i randomly saw cruising down Coldspring Ave by Hampden LOL |
As with many of our regular rides, it wasn't necessarily ground breaking or anything big and important in and of itself. But rather, the act of doing it, practicing, going through the exercises together is so important for keeping us feeling confident and strong.
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| omgosh look at this sweet holiday gift from a barn mate!! |
That strength piece especially is still lacking a bit for Doozy. Now that she lets me sorta 'ride' her more, I'm hoping to make a little more progress on helping her grow strength in the right ways to continue improving how she carries herself.
But it is a long road, ya know? Especially when we feel kinda limited in our ability to dig into the schooling while threading the needle dodging lesson kiddos haha.... For now, I'm just happy to be back on the horse, and checking off a few 'preparations' boxes in hopes that next week's clinic pans out. Wish us luck :D
That's a lovely framed photo gift. A great picture that is definitely a keeper. Hoping everything comes together for your upcoming clinic.
ReplyDeletethanks! it was definitely very sweet :)
DeleteAh thst gift gives all the feels. It was very nice of Doozy to time the worst of her hoof ouchie while you were gone. I’m looking forward to hearing about the clinic.
ReplyDeletethanks i'm really excited about the clinic. we haven't had the best prep ever... but i think it'll be ok!!
DeleteSchooling any horse, never mind a younger horse, around beginner group lessons is a skill! If it makes you feel slightly better I used to wish more than anything for my own space, until I got it - now I am realizing in many ways the horses got better experience with shared space. I rode much more accurately and with way more awareness, not to mention Monday lesson nights were far more wild than anything a busy show warmup could bring :)
ReplyDeleteha yea i definitely prefer being at a boarding barn for sure! the activity and all is great for exposure. we still need to get our actual productive schooling done tho if i have any chance of actually getting her trained LOL
DeleteIt's so tricky when you're trying to weave your own chaos into the already existing chaos in the ring LOL! And that gif of her snuffling around the platinum performance is pure horse gold - expensive things, NO THANK YOU!
ReplyDeletelol right? like mare -- i swear this stuff is good for you! luckily she's eating it better if i do a light soak on the food....
DeleteOh my, I teach beginner lessons and it can be so hard staying out of the way of people schooling their horses! I try to be mindful because I know exactly how you feel! You are very thoughtful to care about staying out of the kids’ way. Doozy sounds like such a good girl!!
ReplyDeleteha yea she is such a good girl! and ya know, honestly it's kinda my opinion that lesson riders get the right of way, no matter their experience, ya know? like, they pay for a specific block of time in the ring with a horse -- they shouldn't be made to feel like they're 'in the way,' ya know? so i figure, we do what we can do within the capabilities of whatever group is riding, and leave it at that. tho i've found it's ideal to arrive maybe 15 min before one lesson ends -- so we can get all our walking warm up done while they're cantering and jumping and taking up a lot of space. then, that group dismounts and leaves and the next arrives and spends some time preparing to get on and get adjusted and start warming up etc, and that 15min window is my golden opportunity to do the bulk of my 'work' with doozy. adapt evolve overcome, amirite?? LOL
DeleteOoof, yeah those busy lesson dodging days I do no miss from the old barn! My current barn pretty much only has lessons on Friday afternoons and it's dreamy! Especially with Al who currently does not use the ends of the ring... Ha!
ReplyDeleteGlad Doozy's sore foot healed up quickly. Can't wait to read about the clinic that I'm guessing has already happened as I'm very behind on reading!