Day 3 and 4, Horsey Blog Hopping

Day 03- Your best riding

This is a hard one for me. I personally don't feel like I've had a day of best riding. I know I have so much more to learn and grow with and any progress I've made has been so small and gradual that it's hard to see the changes unless I compare it to where I was years previous.

The biggest thing I can think of is when I was in regular lessons with Jim and I was able to get Gwyn working consistently on the bit during the lesson. It's something I struggle with and that Gwyn struggles with. I'm not sure she has the muscle strength to do it right now because of how long we've both been out of regular riding work but I'm hopeful that I can change that.

I say that as all my plans for this afternoon are shot because it's thunderstorming. I was going to do a lunging session with her with some raised trot poles to help start redeveloping her topline.

Alas.

Maybe I'll get it set up for tomorrow.




Day 04- A ride that impacted your life

In general, riding is impactful broadly for me. I am in better moods after I've ridden, regardless of the quality of the ride and having horses around acts like an antidepressant.

Probably the most impactful ride was the one that I was forbidden from doing. When I was pregnant with Hazel, the blood clot and subsequent blood thinners meant that riding was really not a good idea. All of my doctors said to stop.

I tried to follow orders and worked on trick training and clicker training. I took Gwyn for hand walks on the trails while Kaylee was at preschool. But ultimately I found myself really not feeling good and ended up having an anxiety attack at a prenatal visit. Too much had been pulled out of my control and I wasn't able to cope as well since my usual coping mechanism was part of the things I wasn't allowed to do.

There was a glorious february day. I had a window of an hour or so where the temperatures climbed into the 50sF. I told Eric I didn't care anymore and that I was going on a trail ride. He knew, bless the man, that I needed it. So we made a deal, that I would check in regularly, and if I missed a deadline, he'd call 911.

It was the best damn ride. Gwyn was a little snorty, but seemed to realize that this had become something special and she better not blow it. We were all by ourselves and it was just... wonderful. I felt better prepared to tackle the stressors of the clot aftereffects. I found a doula and I took back control of my pregnancy as much as was possible.

And I started riding again. No more than 30 minutes, always lunging first to evaluate Gwyn's excitability. I aborted at the first sign of funny business from her. And if I was alone, always with a dead man's switch, checking in with Eric regularly. It was a life saver.

Exploration

It's been cold and I've been battling mystery cough illness and some exhaustion. It makes riding difficult. I've ended up taking naps just to get through the day.

Today, I had enough energy to get out of the house while there was still daylight, with Hazel bundled up on my back, to go out and clean the barn. The manure has been building up from midweek. I keep the stalls clean but the runs start to accumulate more than I can get picked in the dark after work or once the poops have frozen to the ground.  Thanks to some freezing rain the other day, the parts of the runs that aren't covered are pretty much an ice skating rink and Gwyn and Saffron aren't going out on it at all. I don't blame them.

Anyway, after getting three wheelbarrow loads of manure out of the runs and getting the stalls nice and clean (note to self, go get more shavings...) I put the dinner hay in the stalls, threw a halter on Gwyn and took her for a walk.

I've gotten permission from our rear kitty corner neighbors to use their property to access the fields behind them. I wanted to see what that access looked like before riding up there, and also familiarize Gwyn to the walk up AND see how Saffron would behave if we just walked away.

Everything went well!  Saffron called a few times, but Gwyn was focused on me for the most part and behaved.  The path to the fields is NOT riding accessible, just on foot, until I can cut back some branches. So my plan with that is to bring up some cookies I made and ask if I can clip them back in that one spot. Yay bribes!

I've also been contacting the landowners of the fields back there to get permission to ride and so far I'm a go!  This is really going to make getting some good conditioning rides much easier to get without the fuss and time committment of trailering out. I'm very excited! It also opens up the possibility of accessing the Polly Ann Trail from home without dangerous road riding.

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!

Video Blog 2 - October 13 2015

I finally got some time at my computer to work on video editing. I have 2 more videos currently to edit and upload but this is progress!

This was our first adventure out on the trail walking in hand and I am super pleased with how everything went. It was a nice day for a walk and we got 3.31 miles in with more mileage on the out loop since I was hoping to find a cut through first and didn't wander so much coming back to the trailer.

I added some picture stills at the end of the video and will likely also upload them into the blog for better viewing as well.

What will hopefully become the cut through trail to the Polly Ann. I am doubtful of its horse friendliness...

Sniffing poop

Much better bridges for horses

Nice fall colors

On our way back

Not at all concerned with halloween decorations