Weekend Update

Friday night I headed out to the farm to meet DH after work. We had a birthday party for my mom that night so I knew we wouldn’t be staying long. Ty just loves to be in the barn so I decided to saddle up Black and take him for a short pasture ride. As soon as he got into the saddle he grabbed the reins and decided he was going to take matters into both hands (literally).

We rode around the pasture a bit but Black seemed sore so DH helped get Ty off and I took Black onto the road to see if she would do any better. Once I got her on the road she seemed to be a bit better. I think the mud in the pasture was harder on her compared to the solid surface of the road. We ended up riding to the neighbor’s house and back.

Saturday Chase & I decided to go for a ride. I told him I’d ride Abby and he could ride Black since Abby hasn’t been out yet this year. We started off down the road and Chase was doing great on Black. Abby was being slow and didn’t want to go but I’d forgotten my crop at home so I just had my hand to whack her with and that wasn’t getting me anywhere. By the time we got to the neighbors Black decided she was going home and Chase was having a hard time controlling her (not that she was that bad he just isn’t used to her style of riding).

Since Abby was being a pest too I decided to head back before someone got hurt. We unsaddled Black and tied her up (I think she was in a hurry to get out to the big bale so I had to let her know that wasn’t going to happen) and I took Abby out for a meeting. I took her out onto the road and did some LFR with her and then did the C pattern all the way down the road. Once we got past the point that she didn’t want to go past earlier I started to slowly make the work easier (easier away from home). She was dripping with sweat and would have done almost anything I asked at this point I think.

I sent her into a ditch, made my lead rope into a set of reins and hopped on bareback. We rode home nice and slow. I started desensitizing her to my legs. I’ve decided I don’t want her as sensitive as Max to legs since she is a child’s horse & Chase tends to balance with his legs at the moment. She was so tired she obliged to ignoring my cues.

When we got back to the house I jumped off and started the C pattern again. I’m going to make being at home a living hell until she figures out going down the road nice and slow is the better option.

Sunday we had drill practice. No, I’m not on the team per se but I did tell them I’d be an alternate in case someone got hurt or couldn’t make it. I’m going to take Black to practice so I can get her in shape. It is the best thing for her overall body. The arena had perfect footing. It was nice, soft, moist sand. I didn’t boot her and hoped I wouldn’t need to. She seemed to do very well on the footing.

As soon as the other horses got close to her she decided to bring out witchy black. She pins her ears and swishes her tail. I’ve decided it is a bluff that has apparently worked for her for years. When the other horses ignored it she quit but if another horse came towards her she was out of there. I think it will be good for her in that aspect.
We ended up filling in (which I hadn’t expected to do) and I had to trot her quite a bit (remember we’ve mostly been at a walk so far because of her feet). She was awesome. She gave it her all. We did the pattern twice and once I asked another member to fill in so I could give her a break. At one point when I was just walking her around I felt what felt like two bones grinding on each other under my saddle towards her left shoulder. She had taken a few bad steps prior but acted fine afterwards. We are trying to schedule a time with the chiro to look at her.

Terry thought maybe she’d be sore today from all of the work yesterday but DH called to say when he let her out she kicked, bucked and then hauled butt to the round bale.