Prep for riding at home!

Our snow is nearly gone, except where the piles were largest or on the north sides of buildings and hills where the sun has yet to reach.

Sunday was finally decent enough weather that I spent hours outside tidying up, doing barn maintenance and prepping for better spring riding.

One thing I'm really proud of is my manure management this past winter. It's extremely hard for me to add in a new item to an already existing routine even if I know it would be beneficial or not take a long time. The curse of ADHD, honestly. But I committed this winter to doing at least some outside manure cleaning every night when I did the feeding. And boy has that paid off.

In the past the manure would slowly pile up outside the stalls (because my horses only pee in their stalls if given the choice) and freeze into giant poo piles that break muck forks. I'd have to wait until the weather significantly warmed before being able to remove it all and then it was a monumental, all day effort with many many people. I found that if I was starting with a clean slate of the runs, that the semi-frozen poo piles could still be lifted, and bonus, our restarting of the original manure pile near the runs meant that I could literally just fling it over the fence to be composted. This meant less dragging wheelbarrows through knee deep snow so less feeling like it was a monumental effort.  (Figuring out how to overcome effort barriers is key with my brain)

There was still a slight buildup of frozen poo, but overall the runs looked SO much better. And I made sure to get as much poo each night that I could, even if it meant scraping the tops off to expose the ice layer below so more would thaw. This has also meant that I will have an easier time of prepping this space to resurface, hopefully, this summer. It was pea gravel but between poor manure management on my part and Saffron needing a dust bath as she's apparently part chinchilla, it needs to be regraded and have rock put back down. Eric and I are looking into footing systems and we really like stuff like this for the dry lots or this for around the outside of the barn and our driveway.

This is my donkey escape spot from last year. We had redneck run a fourth line of electrobraid in the giant gap at the bottom and it's been okay but this time we actually legit connected the fourth line with the copper bolts and got it officially onto the t-posts the way it out to be. The only thing left to is nail in an insulator on the one wooden post in the middle of the line and it'll be official!

 And then, since my arena is now super soupy which is better than concrete, I rearranged my poles and standards to allow for some better dressage schooling. I have a corner set of poles to trot plus the center thing. This gives me some more room to lunge and practice 20m circles while also allowing full use of the outer track for canter work, which we need to do desperately. Before, my step stool I use for mounting was frozen into the sand. That's now movable. Yaaaaay spring!

My new commitment for this year is to drag this thing at least monthly. I'm looking forward to riding in it, hopefully this week. The light is already better in the evening and I think I could start adding in quick rides after dinner and before kid bedtime.

Gwyn's Stall - still using the heated buckets for now.

 Since I was deep cleaning, I brought the animals to the front pasture for some not nibbled to the ground grass and Saffron was beside herself in joy. I did have to fix feet divots that they made when the neighbor's 20 year old daughter sped down their driveway and spooked everyone. *grumble* The ground is both super soft in places and still frozen. It's a fun dichotomy /s.

I'm constantly estimating and trying to predict how long my hay will last me. I bought a lot more than last year but I also think this winter was worse than last year and I tore through a lot of it with that deep freeze we had.  This should easily get me to May when I can start relying primarily on pasture while still leaving a few bales for camping trips.

Saffron's stall

Back to Conditioning! and a bit of sun :)

Because work is terrible lately and they want me to restrict my hours, I have been making every effort to only work 4 days a week and spend that fifth day on something fun. Last friday I took Kaylee to the movies, the friday before I trailered to the indoor arena to get some schooling in before the dressage show.

This week promised temperatures above freezing PLUS clear skies and sun. I knew I was going riding, but the question came down to where. I had lots of options available, but with footing being questionable in a lot of places, I ended up settling on the Polly Ann Trail, at the Leonard trailhead so I didn't have to do any road riding to access the trail.

I'm pretty pleased by her body condition at the moment coming out of winter. Now to get her better muscled and not cresty with spring grass.

Rides so far in May

Now that the weather is improved getting out more frequently for rides is easier! I've moved the animals to the front pasture at this point though I might toss them back and forth depending on how the grass keeps up.

So this past weekend...

Friday we had a giant windstorm that blew down the top of one of the pine trees that lines the neighbor's driveway that we use to access the barn. (We all have easement access)  Rear neighbors were at their son's college graduation so front neighbor came over with his chainsaw and helped me break down the tree.

Totally blocking the driveway.

Where it came from

5 year old for scale

Sunday Morning

I kept eyeing the thing and thinking, "This would be PERFECT for a jump". So neighbor helped me trim down the branches and then cut the central trunk into two pieces. And voila, my schooling cross country log jumps were born! On Saturday  I propped them up with some log pieces we have from behind the shed to give them more height and started plotting how I would go ride after Hazel was in bed. I even wore my riding pants to nurse her with the goal of immediately heading out while I still had light.

And then that was completely foiled. The kids took priority but by the time everyone was actually in bed for good it was 10pm and there was no way I was going to test my new jumps. I legit cried, much to my poor, bewildered husband's confusion.

So I went to bed in my still clean kerrits riding tights and vowed to ride first thing in the morning on Sunday.

Which I did :D

I rode in that front pasture and Saffron chased us and bit at Gwyn's flanks, the naughty donkey (though I wonder if she's jealous?)  and we even did a line from my larger log to my cavaletti. Gwyn was great and I was super pleased and just totally in a much better mood than the night before.

Then I went and looked at a pony. Maybe details later, I haven't decided how I feel.


Then today, Monday, my work schedule got switched around a bit and my major Monday project got moved to Tuesday. So by 2pm I was twiddling my thumbs. After prewriting my post for Gwyn's birthday (This Friday!) I finally gave up after husband prodding and left at 4pm. Thank goodness for being part time hourly. So much flexibility.

The difference of an hour meant that the kids got fed immediately and then went to play outside. Both adults were present for dinner making (by which I mean we bought a roast chicken from Kroger) and by 6pm I was thinking... I could ride!

So I did.

It was a beautiful day too. Gwyn is blowing out her coat finally. I can see her darker summer coat in places now.

 I tacked up after giving Gwyn and Saffron their grain. I got my der dau boot stretch which I didn't realize was just an alcohol spray. But I used it on my new Ariat terrains to see if they'd help them break in for my wide feet that ariat refuses to cater to.

And then we were off! I'm still planning to do the event derby and we need to maintain/improve endurance conditioning so I thought doing some trot and canter sets in the farm fields would be a fun idea. I've been visualizing our canter lately and she's very much an on the forehand kind of canter but I feel like my arena is too small to give me a chance to rock her back while still maintaining impulsion before we hit a fence. The fields are much more open and I have a lot more confidence in how she'll rate with me.

So I let her canter, which ends up kind of being a hand gallop and I realized that I'm usually up in two point bracing against her and that can't help with her being on the forehand so I took a deep breath and made myself sit back and down and by god wouldn't you know it that was effective. And I know Megan at A Enter Spooking just wrote about the Landau reflex which I knew about from having two human foals but indirectly applying it tonight and then later on reflection realizing this is what she meant was a huge light bulb.

DUH AMY. It's like Jim always says. The rider forms the horse.  So now I really want to get back up into those fields and work on developing her strength so she can rock back into that nice canter and maintain it because there at least we have the distance to really focus on it without worrying about bend. That can come later.

 With all the cantering and the extended trotting we definitely maintained an endurance ride pace and she was sweaty by the end. I hosed her off and then we posed for pictures. LOL

"Someone" tried digging a hole by the gate after we left. 

And for fun :D

A Ride in the Sun: 1 mile

For just the briefest of moments this weekend, we had warm(er) weather and it was sunny and clear Saturday and Sunday AND I didn't have to go into work. The stars were aligned, y'all. 

It was a dead horse kind of day. Pink is Gwyn, flat out, and purple but blending in is Saffron, also down but not totally out.

"Mom, you have treats, right?"

Since shedding season has FINALLY begun (yay spring!) I took my time grooming Gwyn. In anticipation of ramping up some work with her, I also gave her the tracest of clips. My first time ever. No judging. This is where she sweats the most so it should help, especially at our endurance ride in April. I might do more for her in April depending on how much of her coat she's blown out.

After tacking up we took to the still sn*wy and wet arena for a 'what is your energy level like today' lunge.

Pokey pony was pokey. I didn't even bother lunging the other side. I could barely get her to trot without a lunge whip. She was of the "ewwww mom, my feet are splashing cold sand on my belly" opinion and just didn't wanna.

I figured that was a good mindset to have for a toodling kind of ride.

"Please can we be done?"

So I hopped on and we did lots of walking work with bending and walk halt transitions and some trotting but really the arena needed one more day of sun before I felt comfortable doing a lot of trot work in it. I need to go through and salt and drag it before the plants take hold.

I did set this up. We walked over it. Gwyn did not touch the poles. That's pretty big. She's usually very lazy with her feet.

We also did the first exercise from the Jumping Exercises book. I did a few extra stuff using this basic set up like a clover leaf pattern with smaller 10m circles. 

So sunny!

Parked out, for her.  Gwyn, you are not a Morgan or Saddlebred. 

I think she was happy for the attention though. Now that she's shedding I'll be making sure to groom pretty much every day so we can keep the itchies at bay. Saffron won't shed for a while but will suddenly be sleek in July. That donkey is enigmatic. I also pulled blankets from them since the weather seems to be on the up and up with no precipitation forecast for a week.

It'll mean less clean horses but they'll be fine, the woolly beasts.

We got about a mile of work in 30 minutes. So we weren't particularly marching. But it was a rejuvenating, warm ride.