In which the girls ride on an unseasonably warm day for February

My mom is here visiting and she always helps me deep clean the barn. It being a super warm day also helped in that my frozen poop was thawing and thus could be fully picked up. Yay! I took a break from poo picking when Kaylee wanted me to get Gwyn's halter.  She proceeded to drag Gwyn around the arena, who very politely followed along after checking with me.

I asked Kaylee if she wanted to ride around on Gwyn with Hazel and she was excited for that. Mom volunteered to lead Gwyn and I would hang onto the kids. Kaylee then decided she didn't want to share with Hazel, so she was getting off. But Hazel was enjoying herself. So off we tried to go.

Well. Apparently my mom ranks lower than Gwyn, or at the very least Gwyn knows Mom doesn't know what she's doing. Gwyn promptly tried to exit the arena to get back to her hay pile, child still on board.


Instead, Kaylee led Gwyn and I held onto Hazel and mom took pictures. Even better!

(Note: Bad mom, no helmet. But I didn't let go of her the whole time so if anything were to have happened, she wouldn't have fallen.)

One ear on me/baby, one on Kaylee

I don't think that gps is accurate, but that's all Hazel!

Lunging

The weather is on an upward trend and today was well above freezing and SUNNY!  It was great. Plus, since Eric got home not long after me, I headed out to the barn to do some work with Gwyn. On these nights where I don't have a lot of light (though more every day!) or time before dinner I've decided I'm going to lunge and get some side reins on her to help develop her topline.

I've taken pictures and video so I have some comparison. If I can do this regularly, I should see improvement!

The arena was a sloppy mess and I kept cantering to minimum, especially on a 20m circle.  Gwyn was a spicy one to start and got my nice clean lunge line wet and sandy. Grrr.

By the end I was seeing a bit more consistent long and low work out of her with more impulsion and less giraffe impression.

There were some deep, soupy spots today. I can't wait for it to dry out a bit so I can get in and drag again.

"But mom, why you gotta get the whip?"

"Because your impulsion was lacking, poneh"

GIRAFFE

My grooming stall has inches of water in it, so we're in the barn aisle.

That butt needs better muscle. Goals!

"I am hungry, you know. FEED ME"

It was really nice to get out and groom her and just love on her too. I'm hoping to lunge a couple times a week until the weather gets more consistently warmer.