ready, set, GO!

Somewhat amazingly, adding a half pad under Doozy’s saddle while we await our fitting appointment (this week!) completely resolved the intermittent feelings of NQRness. 

It doesn’t seem like that should be true… and in fact my vet was skeptical when I asked her about it… But here we are lol.

legitimately the sweetest mare, esp when you have pockets full of carrots <3 <3

We’ve been able to stick to a consistent routine again, increasing low impact mileage via trail riding while being thoughtful about more concussive activities. Doozy did her first little canters again at the end of last week, and first little jompies this weekend, eee! And so far, so good — she feels great.

guys i keep buying more saddle pads from Fair Hill Saddlery’s overstock store lol

Honestly does not at all feel like she missed a beat. Which makes me wonder if the saddle issue has been going on for longer than I realized — esp given some of Doozy’s more extreme antics when first coming back from the original bruise in early February. The wool is very compressed in places, which wouldn’t have happened overnight. 

So it seems reasonable to think that she was coming back into work and simultaneously feeling uncomfortable in the saddle — thus the fireworks. Definitely something I’ll file away for the next time Doozy seems unreasonably… spicy lol.

this one is by Shires Arma and the color is divine

Anyway. Now that we’re back doing normal things again (knocking on wood), I want to carry on with examining the nitty gritties of our foundational work. With today’s topic being: our ever-evolving warm up routine. 

my tack cubby is completely overrun omg

I say “evolving” bc ya know. Situations and conditions are always changing. Right now, the horses have swapped to overnight turnout - meaning my typical ride times (after work on week nights or middday or on weekends) occur when Doozy has been stalled for hours. 

Especially with Charlie, who had myriad physical considerations on his high mileage body, the approach to warming him up varied by whether he was coming out of the stall, or out of the field.

anyway. to riding! quick warm up circuit around the close paddocks.
it’s a very hilly route, with high spots at the outdoor (far most left) and big indoor (farthest right structure) and low spots at the barn yard and small indoor (center) and farthest right tree line

Charlie obviously was an extremely different sort of animal than Doozy, especially later in his career. Getting him in front of the leg and responsive to forward aids had to be Black & White, always. That was our first and final commandment. 

But with his occasional tendency toward dullness, and all those physical considerations, it wasn’t always super fun (or effective) for either of us to arrive into the sandbox and immediately start picking on him. Instead, we’d often go on light hacks or little circuits around the farm or fields first to get him loose and swinging.

heading down the path to that farthest right tree line, and looking back up the hill at the big indoor

And now that the ground is dry again, I’m experimenting with the same approach for Doozy! She can be such an anticipatory type creature that just walking circles in the sandbox for 10min to loosen up can become a tense fussy affair. She’s the kind of horse that… when you get on, your inclination is to pretty much get to work right away. 

climbing back up toward the indoor

Not that she can’t simmer down and focus on intentional walk work… But she normally needs to vent a little energy first — have a little trot and maybe a canter first. 

So by going on a little farm walk before the ride, I’m able to let her just cruise around - marching happily toward the various horizons. Then when we get to the ring? We’re both ready to get straight to the ‘work,’ which task-oriented Doozy seems to appreciate.

arrived at the outdoor ready to play with jompies yay!! look how straight her foot prints are thru the grid, good biscuit!

And this weekend, that included playing with some little jumps! Fun! This gymnastic has been set up for a couple weeks now and I’ve been jealously eying it while passing from the driveway. But we finally got our chance! And Doozy was so good omg. 

We trotted a little X first, and the little green boxes below, then went straight to the grid exactly as it appears above - small X bounces set at 9’ (placing rail at about 7’ for trotting in), then 18’ to the 2’3 vertical. I was tempted to push the vertical back to about 21’, since historically that’s been an easier distance for Doozy… But idk who originally set the gymnastic up and didn’t wanna screw it up for the ponies. 

always with the face rubs lol

Doozy was fine for that short distance tho, what a good girl! And straight as an arrow! She touched the rail both times we went through, but didn’t knock it. Which, fine by me. She also landed on both leads for our two trips — perfect! 

another day, another trip out to the woods

I did have to remind myself to not completely stop riding once we started jumping and Doozy got excited tho. Like, I have to remember to tell her that she can still trot nicely in between jumps — and that it’s up to **me** to achieve the trot I want before aiming at the next jump. This isn’t a horse show, we are allowed to circle lol.

learning to be civilized about following lol

And Doozy impressed me by actually being able to achieve that nice trot again fairly quickly once I remembered to ask for it. A good lesson for me to learn, since especially at shows I tend to give in a little too quickly and just feed into the frantic excited energy. 

do we look like we’re having fun??

All told, it was a relatively short ride with only a few jumps and nothing approximating course work… But was just the ticket for getting a sense for how the mare feels. Verdict? She’s great. 

I’m hoping to basically pick up right where we left off last fall for this season, despite the somewhat bumpy winter. And that’ll start hopefully this week with our first jump lesson since…. September with Dom?? We’re trying out a new local pro and I’m very excited. Wish us luck lol.

finishing up with snacks. always with the snacks

And in the meantime, I’m going to continue experimenting with low impact / drama-free ways to improve our warm up routine and general condition. 

Anybody else out there have favorite routines, techniques or habits for getting your horse optimally warmed up and ready to work, especially after coming out of the stall?