0.11 miles for Kaylee and 0.15 miles for me!

Kaylee was in her princess gown and helped me groom.  It was a gorgeous day in the high 60s, felt like 70s F. With all the sun my pasture is finally drying up and the mud is going away!

Saffron was hanging out with us the whole time too

Kaylee chose to ride first. Gwyn was perfect. I haven't done anything with her (bad bad me!) since the beginning of February and she was calm as could be despite the garbage truck coming to empty the dumpster and some deer running in the woods!  She's become so levelheaded! That or she was super sleepy in the sun, LOL

We are always safe!

Hugs for a good girl

I rode around by myself a bit then hopped off when the garbage truck came by. No sense being too dangerous given my due date is in 2 days. When I went to get back on, Kaylee INSISTED that she lead Gwyn around while I rode.  It was adorable.

It was also really good practice to follow a random path by a nearly 4 year old around the arena at a very slow pace. And by golly, when Kaylee started running, Gwyn picked up the pace to keep up with her! Good girl!

Having a snuggle with Saffron while my mom looks on.

When I first got on Gwyn, she twisted around to look at me, like "Mom? Really? We get to do this? FINALLY!!!"   I think she missed it.

Soon enough, Goober, we'll be back riding more.

39 weeks 5 days pregnant with my princesses! Kaylee found some feathers from an unfortunate victim. But it's a pretty cool collection of feathers from a bird of prey!

So funny story. I told my Mom yesterday that I was going to ride today. She immediately was worried.  "What if Gwyn bucks you off!?"

"Omg, MOM. She will not do that."
Skip to today and we're standing around while my Mom took these pictures and suddenly she goes, "Oh my goodness, Amy, she's falling asleep!"
"And you were worried she was going to buck me off."
Pfft. I know my horse. And I'm REALLY going to enjoy exasperating my doctors when they ask if I've ridden and I'm honest. HAHAHAHAH!

February 3 2016 4.24 miles

It was too nice of a day. I couldn't resist!  Especially for February. So Gwyn and I went to the Polly Ann Trail while the kiddo was in school.

Happy Pony

Happy Me!

We made it all the way to town! 

Goals for 2016 by Month

The Distance Derby has monthly events and for March, the participants were challenged to come up with non-distance related goals for each month of the rest of the year that involved your horse.

I think that was an excellent idea and took it to heart. We only had to do one goal each month, but I do have some back up and multiple goals, because goals! Part of my goals involve getting back into shape after having the baby for both Gwyn and myself. Ideally, as Hazel gets older I'll be able to condition more and more. I'm also trying to keep in mind Eric's time as well, since he'll be primarily responsible for childcare while I ride. 

The tricks that I mention are things I can do while babywearing Hazel or while she naps. I plan to have a portable crib that I'll bring out to the barn to leave her to chill while I do things with Gwyn. They're also weather dependent. I.E. I'm less likely to ride when it's cold, or want to spend time outside while it's cold with Hazel. 

March
Teach Gwyn one trick! TBD

April
Avoid going into labor during Distance Derby dinner
Introduce new baby to Gwyn

May
At least sit on Gwyn
Alt goal- teach second trick to Gwyn/teach to highline in prep for camping

June
First post partum trail ride!

July
Ride once a week

August
Endurance ride at Kensington, novice 15 mile
Ride twice a week

September
Ride three times a week
Go to a hunter pace or local dressage show

October
LD endurance ride at silver Creek
Polly Ann trail fall ride

November
Ride three times a week

December
Ride on new year's Eve
Teach third trick to Gwyn

Training Fail

I had a complete and utter brain fart when it comes to training Gwyn. Thankfully things were not bad, though they could have been catastrophic.

When you introduce new things to horses you want to make sure you break it down into component pieces. As an example, you don't hook a horse up to a cart without making sure they're familiar with all of the little pieces (harness, something moving behind them, ground driving, pulling weight, etc)

In my excitement about having both snow and my skijoring harness, I figured I'd introduce Gwyn to weight.

I neglected to introduce her to something sliding across the snow when she moved.

Ah.

Taking a nap in the snow. This has all since melted.

Looking good! We made it through winter fat and no ribs! Thank you LOTS of hay!

Anyway, I put the harness on her, I wasn't even planning to ground drive her, just lead her around the pasture with a slight amount of weight in Kaylee's sled and the sled hooked up to the lines of the harness.

We took maybe too steps and my mistake kicked me in the ass. She absolutely flipped out. And it's definitely my fault. She went flying up the hill, the sled flapping behind her, then down the hill and into the front pasture.

Saffron and I kind of looked at each other like... "Uh... maybe we should go after her..."

The small amount of weight I had used (my grooming box) was remarkably undumped, a testament to how quickly she bolted. I trudged through the snow, Saffron at my side, to find the sled in two pieces, and thankfully no longer hooked up to Gwyn. If I had attached it differently, it might not have broken the way it did. 

I left the sled and approached Gwyn and apologized. She was snorty but calm. The harness was still on her. I led her over to the broken sled and let her sniff. I took the harness off and did what I should have done first. I put the harness in the sled and pulled it beside myself while leading Gwyn back to the barn.

She calmed down immediately, gave it a side eye, but didn't do much more to be scared.

To further reduce the damage, I piled hay on top of the sled and led her with the sled into the arena. She was eating off of it as we walked. I think the damage was reduced...

We walked around the arena for a while and then, to salvage some of the time I had, I did some ground work to get her focused on me in the 'scary' side of the arena. 

So, thankfully the nightmares that flashed through my head as I watched her race up the hill did not come to pass. It's salvageable.

And there are no more sleds for sale and the snow is gone. We'll work on dragging a 2x4 board instead. And we'll do it properly this time.

Skijoring set is here!

Rough German translation of included instructions:

Danger! Our instructions are no substitute driving course! You will find just how to adjust what. These instructions apply to the exclusivity only for the original classic " PUR " - Line , who wants to have it even easier , so want more , abiding by the " PLUS " - execution.

Dear Customer/s
Some of this harness is now at first sight different than you are used to it. Conspicuous has this harness hardly buckles and loops , still can and must be set correctly. How to be a breastplate has, etc. should be known to you, I will not go into here at the point on. The how of adjusting, however, I would like to illustrate this:
The manufacturing material is an Air-Rope (hollow braid) of polyethylene with an enormous tear strength, which can be connected quickly and safely without knots. For entangling of the cable end as the end part is inserted about 20-30 cm from the outside in the pushed together, thereby expanding (schlauchige) interior of the cable. The rope braid now drawn together in the load, so the inserted end is held by the contact pressure.
All connections on dishes, head pieces and lines are more or less designed according to this principle. So if you want to change something, please see the corresponding compound carefully and you will succeed to extend the corresponding stripper or shorten. (Incidentally, if thereby should solve a final gluing, easy to turn back with a piece of tape.)
The connection points are, where necessary, provided with locking sleeves which prevent a displacement in the relaxed state.
To change the settings, push the locking sleeve over the insertion of time, readjust and tighten the sleeve again.
(page 2)
The line can like most Sieltec products (see previous page) in length be adjusted.
The longer, left leash secured knows both lines are also also for better verification white marks. To adjust the Cross Cap Simply beat one or more nodes in the on shortening linen. Do not worry, the knots are easily solved by use readily, but should always be removed! Attention, you can unintentionally brutal (Zufassen) with these lines as to a hard hand, please always give nice. Meanwhile, some joints are partially secured with sleeves, they are only pushing aside before the adjustment and take on again her place. 
The strands are adaptable and to handle their mounting on any (Ortscheit) arbitrarily. They can be, e.g. As simply hung over the (Ortscheit) or fasten with safety shackles (To see in the clips below, product information/instructions)
The (Oberblattstrupfen) (the connections between comb and cover strands in pairs dishes) are connected through a race to the strands and are among the small waist belt. The (Verschnallen) omitted here, is at best to "Move" and the train line corrects itself. The Marathon Harness with panic shackles are of annular configuration, these loops you just by the pedestrian spectacle.
Upon delivery of the buggy harnesses with breeching we attach the carabiner of the rear harness because of the clarity of the suspension rings or another. This must necessarily be fixed when tension on the scissors! Only then can they fulfill their purpose and do no harm. 
The lifting eyes can be adjusted in height: unfolding, pull out, reinsert, finish (See images below or in the product information/instructions)
END

Package arrived severely banged up. I had a moment of "what did I order?!" when it arrived since I needed to sign for it.

Thankfully the box being banged up had no impact on the actual product, due to its construction materials.

It's a simple breastcollar that I can use with my existing surcingle, bridle and driving lines for some simple harness work. The most we'll be doing is pulling things in the arena and pulling people around on a sled or skis in the snow. Skijoring!! They also make full harness sets in fun colors with this braided hollow rope. Adjustments appear easy and google translate helped me figure out how adjustments would work. I'm impressed with the quality of work. And it won't degrade from mildew or mold!

The original instructions

Kaylee Ride #2

 We had a crazy busy day yesterday, and my little energizer bunny STILL wanted to go ride! That's my girl!  It was a nicer day, in the low 40s, which compared to the teens we've been seeing was positively balmy.

After I got the stalls cleaned, she was still very insistent on riding, and even more insistent that we use Gwyn's new to us pink biothane bridle with rhinestones. I'm using a hackamore with it and needed to rig up a curb chain because the one that came with it was not big enough.

We had the necessities, helmet, bridle and 'reins'.  I tossed Kaylee up bareback and we did a walk through the pasture.  Gwyn was patient and a very good girl and Kaylee was having fun chatting to me as I walked beside her. Every so often Gwyn would stop and give me this look of "Are you SURE, mom?" so I would have Kaylee thump with her heels and tell her "Walk on!" And veeeeeery reluctantly, Gwyn would start to walk again.

Kaylee wanted to go in the arena too and I was a little worried because Gwyn has been spooky in the arena lately. Well, I figured out why!  The deer are bedding down in the woods between our property and the one behind us!  We spooked the deer up and I watched Gwyn get antsy and start to dance. I had my hand on Kaylee's leg and when the spook got to be too much I made sure Kaylee slipped toward me and let Gwyn get her spook out in a tight circle.

Kaylee wasn't fazed in the slightest and insisted on getting back on. We did another circuit of the arena and then went back to the barn because she was getting cold (the clouds had arrived).

She rode for 0.57 miles!

Kaylee is riding!

She's ridden twice so far this month, both per her own request, which is awesome. I've got her participating in the Distance Derby with a goal of riding 6 miles this year. I figured that was a decent goal, as broken down it only means 1/2 mile a month. So far in January she's ahead of the game! I debated doing 12 miles, but for goal reaching I thought it'd be cool to definitely have something achievable. If we do our hikes this summer where I babywear Hazel and Kaylee rides Gwyn, then we'll definitely get some mileage in, but just farting around the pasture is small change. It just so happens to add up!

1.01 miles! I couldn't stay away....

I knew that I was going to deal with some crazy critters yesterday and that if I wanted to hop on bareback, I needed to let everyone get their wiggles out. The day was warmer than it had been, but was still only in the low 40s. I can deal with those temperatures!

The donkeys immediately took off tearing around the arena, bucking and leaping. They were having a grand ol' time. Gwyn was a little more sedate, but had a few moments. She had less wiggles, I guess, lol. All the better for me!

Gwyn wiggles

Spelled wrong, but it was a gift from a friend so I didn't say anything and accepted graciously because I'd always wanted bridle tags.

Screw the doctors. I had a 30 minute dead man switch worked out with Eric. If I didn't check in within 30 minutes of telling him I had gotten on, he was to call in the cavalry. 

I... don't know why they are doing this. Saffron is the one mounting Arwen. They're both jennies so I don't know if it's a dominance thing. I'm still researching.

Arwen is sweet, but we need to work on leading and picking our feet up.

Today while I cleaned up poop, Gwyn hung out with me. She left me alone as soon as I threw a few flakes of hay into the pasture, hahaha. 

"Hi, feed me. My pasture is barren. I'm starving"

"I'll eat the camera"

I've gotten fed up with making multiple trips with a muck bucket I can lift, so now I get all the poop in one go and shovel it into my dumpster. I think it goes faster. Plus upper arm workout!