Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The thaw begins

This week has been an oddity, it has been above 40 degrees.  Every day.  That hasn't happened since, when, November?  It is AWESOME!!  It has allowed me to ride my beasts AND be outside and not hate life!  Here is to hoping it doesn't dip back down, it shouldn't but who knows anymore. WARM!!!   The flip side to that is that everything is very wet.  Very, very wet.  The front eighth of the arena is wet thanks to the water coming in while everything was frozen.  I have that fixed and once it dries out I SHOULD have a dry arena during the spring.  I am much more optimistic than I have been the past 3 springs where 3/4 of the arena has flooded, I think I have the process down now.

I rode App on Saturday because why not.  We started in the arena before finishing on the road.  He was really good in the arena but became a jackhole on the road.  Well, no.  Only on the way back.  Rushing, jigging, refusing to slow down.  Argh I remembered what I hated about App.  The road was 80% ice so we walked in the ditch a lot so he didn't kill us by slipping b/c he was being an ass and once we got back in the driveway I went off on him.  After a good "discussion", I made him walk up and down the driveway until he listened to my seat.  What an ass he can be when he wants to.  He was 100% perfect on the way out.  Grrr.

Mia was much better.  I have been riding her strictly dressage and things are going really well.  I have said it before, but I am excited to ride with M so she can see our progress.  Mia is now stretching down into the bridle most of the time and isn't bracing like she was.  She can even carry herself in the canter both directions pretty well (yay for treats!).  Our ride Sunday was great.  Monday she was pretty good at the trot but obviously had a case of the zoomies and our canter wasn't so great.  It took a good while before I got her to listen and not chug along while ignoring me.  We even lost our steering a few times in the canter as she wasn't paying any attention to my outside leg and almost ran over TWH and K.  I made her do canter quarter circles (canter a quarter circle, trot a quarter/half circle) and that really helped get her brain back in her head and we finished on a good note.

Of course then yesterday I noticed my hip kinda hurt so I didn't ride.  I stretched it out some and went to bed and today it HURTS.  Figures.  I took some drugs and hope to be better for tonight when I have to give a lesson.  My plan is to take it easy tonight and see how it goes.  Figures I am sore right when it warms back up.  Grrr.

The vet is out this coming Saturday for shots/coggins and to see how App is.  I will have a lameness done on him to verify that his hocks are still doing fine.  I think they are but history has proven I suck at identifying hind end lameness.  I also have some big news, some very big news that I will be announcing shortly.  Enjoy the warmer weather and I hope people can find a semi-dry place to ride!


2 comments:

  1. Hurray! You are getting some spring, too. It really was a long winter. Now, not only can we ride, but it is light in the evenings. My horse was full of himself, too, even though I have bee riding him in the arena all winter.

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  2. Yay for warmer weather!!!!! It sure feels like it takes forever to get here. It finally warmed up here and now I'm too busy to do anything... :( I feel like I'm totally missing out on it.

    Hey at least with App he was good on the way out. Some horses are balky and try to spin and then rush and jig on the way back, so they are unpleasant the whole time instead of half the time. I feel you on that though because I used to have a horse that did that. It was soooo annoying!!!!!

    I hope your hip healed up quickly. It's so typical when the weather gets nice we get sick, hurt or our stupid jobs change our hours to where we don't have a single free second to ourselves. :\

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