✅ Trailer serviced, all done and picked up and mechanic approved to go to Cali
✅ Pack trailer: Spare halters, multiple lunge lines, spare lead ropes plus what's already with her in CA. First Aid kit, lots of buckets.
✅ Book a place to stay in California
✅ Buy grain for Leche: I have a bin for grain storage that will go on the shelf, reusable ziploc bags to hold the grain, just need to figure out portion sizes for her and bring some of her old grain with me to transition her
🔲 New board contract signed
🔲 Make feed instruction sign for grain room
🔲 Pack clothes for trip: we did do a ton of laundry over the weekend so this should be easy enough
If you recall, I had mentioned that there was drama involved with dropping my trailer off for servicing. The weekend prior to my scheduled drop off date at the dealership, a friend borrowed the truck and it had a dead battery. The truck was jumped and they proceeded with their dump run with minimal fuss and the truck was returned and parked.
I intended to drop my trailer off the night before so I didn't delay the start of my work day, except when I went to start my truck, that evening, it wouldn't start. It wouldn't even try to turn over. Since both of our other vehicles are electric, we had to pull out the marine battery I use for camping and my CPAP and jump the truck off of that battery. It turned on and the engine purred just fine. I hooked up and headed to the dealership with the trailer.
Once there, I discovered that they close off their lot. So while they may say drop off after hours is okay, there wasn't a good place to put my trailer that wasn't painfully obvious to someone who might want to take it. I agonized about putting it in the back of their spare lot but ultimately decided I didn't' want to leave it overnight in an open lot.
All of this was occurring on February 7, which just so happened to be the 20th anniversary of when Claire and I started dating.
So I headed back home, a little discouraged and wondering how long it was going to take to get the truck running the next morning and worried that I wouldn't get the trailer serviced in time. I parked everything, turned the truck off and prayed that the battery was holding a charge after the driving I had done.
Nope. Immediately dead.
So Claire and I went on a late night drive to AutoZone to purchase a battery and we spent the evening slowly figuring out how to remove the hold battery (and shearing a bolt in the process) and install the new battery.
The new battery was, thankfully, the solution. When Claire looked up life expectancy of truck batteries we were looooong past end of life for my truck, so it's honestly surprising there weren't issues sooner.
The trailer was in good condition according to the mechanic, all electrical was good, bearings on both the main tires and spare were great. It's peace of mind.
And then I had far too much seafood at an after work dinner with colleagues.
Lessons have been more sporadic lately, though I did get a lesson in the Sunday after Thanksgiving at Bridle Trails. Traveling all the way up to me for Monday evening has been wearing on Jim and Cortney and I think we'll be rearranging lesson day to be daylight hours. As much as having them come to me was nice, I totally get that it's a rough drive to do weekly, at rush hour. Traffic is horrendous out here.
Combining the sporadic lessons with the holiday and then some mystery gastric thing I had, I haven't ridden much, and the last time I rode Gwyn I felt like a stiff board getting on and boy was that discouraging and I didn't make it out more. The Sunday lesson was early afternoon and a new friend, Robin, joined us. She's also an endurance rider that Cortney met and I definitely like her, she's a great person to hang out with. She came to Thanksgiving too!
Her gelding has been cleared for light riding after an injury, so she joined us at Bridle Trails. We planned on a 1pm meet time that of course I ended up biffing when I found my truck tire was low on air AND there was a line at the gas station for using the air pump.
Because I'd been so stiff last time I rode I made sure I stretched my hip flexors before getting on. Note to self, do that before putting on spurs. Lesson learned.
Gwyn recognizes the sound of Cortney's truck, LOL
Gwyn was a bit sassy to start off so I made sure to lunge (see aforementioned over a week off and nice cool weather). Lunging I found she's able to maintain a balanced canter for a lot longer, which is really encouraging. It doesn't even get strung out and flat. I'm really excited for when that translates under saddle. Her brain seemed relatively well screwed in so I hopped on.
Jim's lessons involve theory as well as practical application. So we have occasional huddles to talk about why movements are useful and how different aids work. Gwyn and I even did some canter under saddle and her good direction was really good!
He and I discussed her weakness in the canter is because we need to strengthen the hind leg that pushes off into the canter. Her weak direction is to the left/counter clockwise, so that's her right hind that needs strengthening work.
Turns on the forehand work on strength in that same leg as you ask them to step under themselves. This is reflected in how her better turns are when we turn counter clockwise because it's the left hind stepping under itself.
Additionally, I need to think of exercises like turn on the forehand as a weight lifting exercise. I shouldn't be schooling it endlessly because like with weightlifting, eventually you hit exhaustion where the muscles just can't perform anymore. I need to come into it with a sets and reps mindset. So do a quarter to half turn, then move forward to reward, relax and encourage the downward stretch. Then repeat a little bit later.
We also practiced our square halts and feeling where the horse is standing without looking and once identified, fixing the halt stance. If I focus on it, I correctly identify her stance 9 out of 10 times. I found that since we were in a dressage arena, if I practiced my halts as though I were in a dressage test by going down the center line, it gave me a target point to halt at and my preparation for halts were much smoother. We ended with a really good, square halt and I was really proud.
After our lesson we hit the trails together. It had been raining through the lesson but the trails are amazingly well groomed and had minimal mud. We kept it to a walk and did between 3 and 4 miles in about an hour.
She had the biggest, swingiest walk as soon as she realized we weren't done and were walking trailward.
Time in the woods, even if a bit wet and cloudy, was so good. And it was in the best company. Cortney told me she had friends waiting for me, and she was right, hahah.
This park is surrounded by encroaching city. It is a gem.
I didn't get home until after sunset (4pm this time of year, lol) Then I just hung out at the barn chatting with folks. I like having this social aspect again. That was definitely something I didn't realize I'd miss as much when we got our own place in Michigan.
Before I left for GenCon in Indianapolis last Thursday, I had set up a time for my old Livejournal acquaintance/friend J to come out and give Gwyn a massage.
The mare herd. The paint filly has taken a liking to me and Gwyn
Odd cuts on her mouth. I wonder if it's something she's eating in the pasture?
We accidentally got the puppy stuck. The kids ran wild while Gwyn got her massage
Bodyworker's notes included:
overall body condition is good yay!
Tenderness in hamstrings and low back
pelvis was pulled forward into her low back on her right side, stood in a hollow pelvic posture
left shoulders and base of neck were adhesed
poll locked up, more on the left
good lumbar sacral range of motion
good limb flexibility after massage
Follow up:
benefit from hamstring stretches after exercise, drawing hind legs forward under her body
stretching the shoulder forward adn back will help maintain suppleness
She was starting to fall asleep. I think it was feeling good.
Her shoulders were uneven. She's showing me how to do stretches.
Containing Hazel helped by the end.
My friend came out with her daughter for a pony ride. Everyone took a turn and Gwyn was foot perfect, even with giant dump trucks driving in and out of the property. They belonged to a dairy farm in Monroe and they lease one of the far fields and were amending the soil to prepare for winter wheat planting.
In stark contrast to previous times she's been put up on Gwyn, Hazel was thrilled to ride Gwyn, and wasn't scared. Now she wants to ride more. I'm plotting already.
Friend's child
Then I had a lesson the next week with Cortney and Jim. Cortney brought her 'baby' Reign. I worked on applying the stretch to really establishing Gwyn being in contact and not throwing it away or holding it too tightly. Apparently I went too far in the opposite direction from no contact to too much.
Gwyn is dubious, I just got off but the lesson wasn't over...
Demonstrating how it's done.
Sunset in Fall City
I can do it too right after Jim rides her.
Gwyn proceeded to be an absolute ass loading onto the trailer and Cortney and I had to chase her around before finally being able to catch her and load her up. Of course once she decided to load, she was fine. This ultimately was a foreboding incident.
I also got new toys.
Over the weekend I was determined to get out and ride. Between a DnD session that I was running being planned at the last minute, to Eric working an extra day on Sunday, I wasn't sure how I would fit it in, but Eric got back early enough that I thought I could fit in a short, local trail ride at Lord Hill.
Goober knows she's in deep shit.
I decided to load in the resting pasture since it would be fully contained. Unfortunately, it's also several acres in size and Gwyn has... become herdbound and is NOT food motivated. She got away from me twice before I even asked her to load, so she's also starting to anticipate my efforts to mitigate her previous running away attempts by twisting and pulling the leadline out of my hands.
I am not happy with her. I need to get gloves. Or a fucking chain over her nose. Either way, she was cantering and trotting across the pasture for between 45-60 minutes. Then once I caught her for good I lunged her ass from the bottom of the field up to the trailer, tied her to the trailer and got my lunge line set for loading and she walked on with no fuss. She arrived sweaty. And then I made her fucking work on those trails. I had no sympathy.
Cars aren't supposed to use this lot. It's got the easiest entry to the park because horses so the humans use it even though they have a dedicated path that just happens to have more elevation change.
It was nice and cool in the forest. There were surprisingly few bugs and no mosquitoes. It has been pretty dry, though I did see some spots of marshy water.
The light had that beautiful, end of summer, evening golden look to it. It was hard to capture on film.
I didn't bring a whip or crop since I wanted Gwyn to walk all the hills and not power up them through the magic of momentum. She was tired and not at all motivated to move forward.
She did seem to move well with the scoot boots on though, which bodes well! This trail is not barefoot friendly.
There was one other rider who left right before I did. I only saw her at the very end. We ended our ride at the same time. No drama getting on to go home. We'll see if the lesson was learned. I was not about to lose that fight of stubbornness.
Also, her dam's influence shone through on this ride. When she was going away from the trailer she minced her way downhill in the scoot boots and I thought for sure something was wrong and the boots were rubbing or something. But once she realized that we were heading back toward the parking lot, she moved out and power walked up and down hills with no issue. Stella used to do the same thing. She'd gimp her way away from home and the moment we would turn around, the head bob would be gone.
I checked her feet all over at the end. No rubs after 4.5 miles. We walked, trotted and cantered. We'll see how it holds up to longer distances. I'm already planning an outing with Cortney on Saturday. Lake Washington Saddle Club has a Wine Prize ride and we are going!
Gwyn says it wasn't fair. I say if we want to move up to 50s, or even just do LDs out here in the PNW, she needs to get over it.
