lazy days

Little Miss Pony was a lazy gal today. It was hot though, so certainly a forgiveable offense. We did some light WTC, then a little bit of walking and trotting bareback.

she's a star

Pearly-girl was so, so good this evening! It was one of those days where I just smiled the whole drive home. I got to the barn right as the horses were being brought in for the night. The barn owner said she was antsy staying in turnout the first few days, but that she had seemed fine whenever he checked on her today, which I am very pleased about. We rode in the outdoor again. It took us an extra try to mount again, but with less teeny-circling than last time, and lots of withers scritches once she stood still for me to get on. There was zero jig-jogging or wanting to rush into trot, so we just took 10 minutes of walking on the buckle. She called to the other horses once during the beginning and that was it. I think the extended turnout is going to be a great thing for her, and she already seems quieter.

Our trot work also felt much more balanced and not rushing. I was able to keep her on a looser rein more of the time, and she seemed to enjoy the stretch. We trotted both directions, focusing on staying straight down the long sides, not getting quicker going home, and using our corners. We took a nice walk break (mostly for my unfit-self's sake) and then picked up the canter, right lead first. She was a bit sticky picking it up at first but opened up. We started on a circle and then moved out to using the whole arena. She picked up some speed but didn't go tanking off, which was nice. She was equally good in the other direction. We ended by trying to video while trotting, which turned into a video while cantering, so I put the camera away and let her trot on a nice loose rein for a couple minutes, then walked her out. I handgrazed her by the road for a bit, and she was so much calmer than she was doing the same on Friday.
Pearly-girl was so, so good this evening! It was one of those days where I just smiled the whole drive home. I got to the barn right as the horses were being brought in for the night. The barn owner said she was antsy staying in turnout the first few days, but that she had seemed fine whenever he checked on her today, which I am very pleased about. We rode in the outdoor again. It took us an extra try to mount again, but with less teeny-circling than last time, and lots of withers scritches once she stood still for me to get on. There was zero jig-jogging or wanting to rush into trot, so we just took 10 minutes of walking on the buckle. She called to the other horses once during the beginning and that was it. I think the extended turnout is going to be a great thing for her, and she already seems quieter. 
Our trot work also felt much more balanced and not rushing. I was able to keep her on a looser rein more of the time, and she seemed to enjoy the stretch. We trotted both directions, focusing on staying straight down the long sides, not getting quicker going home, and using our corners. We took a nice walk break (mostly for my unfit-self's sake) and then picked up the canter, right lead first. She was a bit sticky picking it up at first but opened up. We started on a circle and then moved out to using the whole arena. She picked up some speed but didn't go tanking off, which was nice. She was equally good in the other direction. We ended by trying to video while trotting, which turned into a video while cantering, so I put the camera away and let her trot on a nice loose rein for a couple minutes, then walked her out. I handgrazed her by the road for a bit, and she was so much calmer than she was doing the same on Friday.
Walking shot--the mosquitoes were very bad and she tends to do a headtossing thing at the slightest provocation anyways, so I stuck the flynet on her and she was great.




Self-timer fail

Trying to get a standing shot after--damn horse keeps following me :)

I also took a horrible faraway video, courtesy of the fence, and will post it after I splice out the out-of-frame bits.

first time outside

On Sunday, I rode in the outdoor arena for the first time. I handwalked her once around each way just as a precaution--there is a big tree in the middle of one end and I wasn't sure if she'd react to it. She was a star and so I hopped up. Thing to work on: standing for the mounting block. She likes to swing her butt away from it or back up once she knows you're committed to stepping up onto the block. I had her go in a bunch of little circles, and then she stood for the block on the second try. She wanted to move right out into a trot, but that was obviously not allowed. We did more "if you try to start trotting, you will go in a small circle" and after almost ten minutes we had made it calmly around each way. I love her natural willingness to go forward and don't want to discourage it too much, but I really do want her to get a good walk warmup before we move on to trotting. 


Trotting felt quite rushy as well, so we did lots more circles and changes of direction. She was also very chatty with the horses in our barn and the horses in the neighboring pasture that belong to another barn, but not as bad as on Friday. She was better about keeping moving while calling rather than telescoping her neck up and sticking her head in my lap, so I just made sure she was moving and ignored the yelling. We took a few walk breaks interspersed with our trotting, and once we were able to go from walking up to a nice calm trotting without having to take a lap or two to slow down, we picked up the canter. We went left first, as that's her better direction. She was pretty chilled by then, and we had pretty much no problems. I kept us on a midsized circle just in case we were overtaken by the omg-cantering-outside-happies, but we were very drama-free both directions and so we called it a day. We walked around on a loose rein for 10-15 minutes, then I gave her a shower and put her back in her paddock (whereupon she immediately rolled, of course).
Coming over to say hello


She thinks this whole crosstie business is a waste of time

Having a good roll to get the clean off