Dressage Lesson #28

If you take a few weeks off because of weather or illness or whatever the reason, don't expect to have your trainer go easy on you. After trying to ride the other weekend and Axel being wound up, I was a little worried about my lesson last night. Luckily, Axel was over his spring fever, or the fever took a break. Tricia said "no" to the saddle and tossed me up on Axel bareback. The snow was deep and crunchy in the round pen so he had to actually pick up his feet. This is good for the horse, and good for my seat so I can learn to sit a bumpier trot. Axel's normal trot is pretty smooth, he doesn't pick up his feet much, which in turn means he trips a lot. He's been doing a lot better this past fall, but I think we tired him out last night.

We worked on some sitting trot just around the circle and then tried to work on some turning. We started out trying to make a "Z" pattern but the turns were too sharp so we changed it to a triangle. Axel and I don't do patterns all that well. Our triangle probably looked more like an ameoba. We finished up by working on some posting trot. Yes, posting trot without a saddle. I will be feeling that for a few weeks.

Despite the pain, it was an okay lesson. It was light out! Yipee, I love riding when I can see where I'm going! And with Daylight Saving happening early, it'll be really light out for my lessons soon.

Spring Fever

It was 30F+ out on Monday and I had the day off because of President's day. So it was out to the barn. Tricia couldn't make it to ride so I was just going to head down the road with Axel for a bit. Axel had other plans. He jumped, bucked, snorted, farted, and was generally ornery. I couldn't find any physical pain so I'm guessing it was just spring fever. In any case it cut our ride quite short. I made it down to the nursery mail box before going a few more strides, stopping for a few seconds while he was calm, and then turning back. Even on the way back he was still acting up so after I was able to get him to stand almost calmly, I got off. The road was still a bit slippery and I didn't want him falling with me on top. So I walked back and he did his best impression of an Arabian horse and bounced the whole way back. He was very light on his feet for a big guy. We got into the yard and he really wanted to trot so I ran along side and he trotted in the deep snow, and then started bucking and snorting again. Atleast we ruled out physical pain from having a rider on his back! I made him stand in the barn tied while he "thought about what he did." When he calmed down and i had the tack put away I turned him out into the paddock.

None of the horses had been in the side pasture since summer and the snow was untouched, so I opened the gate and prepared my camera for some general craziness. Unfortunately I had my old camera so I wasn't able to catch all the action as well as I could have. But I got a few decent action photos. Of course I didn't remember I had a movie option until everyone had stopped running around. I did get this video of Cody and Kalani playing a little bit.

Long Time No See

Man it feels like ages since I've been out to the barn. It's been a few weeks at least. It's amazing how much manure piles up when the horses are confined to the small pasture and paddock instead of the summer when they can go in the bigger pastures. Someone give us a mini tractor, please! Hehe.

I had a WCR meeting this afternoon so as long as I was sort of near the area I swung by the barn to visit the horses and deliver my collection of apples. Since I hadn't been to the barn in ages I had a pile of apples, I don't think the horses minded. I let Beau in the barn so he could hang out, his favorite place to be.

I was going to halter up Cody and Axel but I decided to just groom them out in the pasture. Everyone always looks so bored in the winter, just standing around doing nothing, trying to soak up the sun. Luckily both Cody and Axel didn't have big wind knots in their manes so they were easy to groom. It didn't seem like either of them had been laying in the snow recently either. So I just ran a brush over them and picked out their feet. I hung around for a little while but the wind was pretty chilly. It's supposed to be in the 30's on Monday and I have the day off of work. I'll probably meet Tricia and go for a ride. We might have to goof around in one of the fields near by, the road is still really icy and/or rocky. I'm looking forward to spring, at least the sun is finally out past 4pm. I won't have to do my dressage lessons in the dark any more.

-14F

It's -14F today where the horses are. -26F where I live this morning. Here's hoping Corey hasn't kicked everyone out of the barn. Though, knowing the horses, they're out laying in the snow like it was the middle of summer. Needless to say I haven't been out there to ride in a while and probably won't be out there yet this week either. I miss my fuzzy horsies!