I arrived at the barn Sunday evening to ride and B and L were in the middle of rearranging the horses and their turnout spaces. They didn't move the mares that night, but their new space is where the school geldings are currently. One of them hurt himself maybe two weeks ago (*I don't think I wrote about this yet)...he's a small black thoroughbred gelding who is super fun to ride named Bucky (a very silly name for a horse that is an angel). L was feeding the boys who were grazing in the aisle attached to their paddock and Bucky, who can be a bit of a grump at feeding, decided to push past L and into the aisle, immediately realizing he was free, he bolted -- the mares in the adjacent field got riled up and he took off toward the barn. At this point he could have turned toward the barn (or the driveway -- yikes), or make a hard left half way and turn into the outdoor riding area, which he did...heading straight at another big turnout where two yearling colts live. He ran head first into their fence...full speed...needless to say he was caught shortly after in pretty dire shape. He needed over 100 stitches to close up his chest and leg and there lacerations in his groin that couldn't be stitched up. He had a drain put in and is obviously going to be recovering for quite some time. He has since ripped out the drain and the wound on his chest is more or less a big open gash that is pretty gruesome. Bucky is being fairly good about his treatment, and will hopefully make a full recovery. It certainly could have ended much worse...and L said if it had been Kiki they would have returned from the vet with an empty trailer (I think he was just winding me up, maybe)...but now they are down another school horse which puts lots of pressure on Kiki and I to get our act together. I know there's really nothing we can do NOW, per se, but it would be nice for her to be used in some lessons maybe next spring. I alone have brought 6 riders with me to their farm and I know they are pretty busy this summer. It will be nice when she and a few of the other green beans are more stable. There's a little girl who just started riding there who reminds me so much of myself as a youngster and she grew up riding all the bad ponies like me...B and I have decided she'd make a great rider for Kiki next spring!
Phew, I digress...turnouts...so now that Bucky is staying inside, it makes more sense for the two remaining geldings to be in turnouts closer to the barn that are a bit smaller and for the girls to have the really big turnout further away...Kiki's herdmates include a retired horse and a racehorse in training so only Kiki and one other mare are used frequently. It will be pretty interesting to see how far she'll make me go to catch her in the new space and whether or not the distance from her mares will help with any remaining herd bound issues. She has come so far with all of that nonsense and I hope we don't regress! There was a time where she would scream and holler and throw herself all over the place to figure out where they were...she rarely does that now. Sometimes she lets out these half-hearted whinnies that just makes me laugh. So Sunday I took it a bit easy on her since she was so good on Thursday and I lunged her briefly before hopping on. She doesn't really need to be lunged, but it's been a little while since we did (beside a few days ago) and I wanted to see where her balance was at now -- plus the last time I lunged her a month or so ago we got into a stand off where B had to step in and take over...it was the first time I really saw B get her serious horse-face on and it was impressive! Tracking left she's great...we did lots of transitions up and down and she was just lovely and quiet. Switch the lunge rope over, she scoots away from me and starts cantering...ugh. At this point she has 5 ft of line to work with, silly girl. I push her out and the second I pick up the whip she bolts...here's the thing, I have never cracked that whip anywhere near her...I just use it to guide her out and to keep her moving forward, she was being ridiculous. What I did notice after she settled in to a 20 meter shape (I won't say circle) is that she doesn't want to carry herself in that small of a space at the trot, and the same place each time she would break into 4-5 strides of canter, then I'd bring her back to trot, rinse, repeat...over and over. I was a bit disconcerting to see her fall into the circle and break into an unbalanced canter...but it makes sense to see it now after so much work under saddle. She really struggles balancing herself tracking right and the only way that is going to get any better is with lots and lots of riding and strengthening. I got on and worked on some leg yield exercises that we did in our lesson Tuesday and she was moving off my leg really nicely. We walked outside because it had rained for two days straight so the ground was no longer concrete. It was a bit of a fight to keep her attention on me and I felt like she was just trotting around like a giraffe. She naturally has a nice way of carrying herself and even if I give her all the reins she fights me...it can be quite frustrating. We did have a few nice moments out there and one of the advanced girls commented on how nice she looked. She was setting up some jumps for her lease ride and had me help her with striding. She had never really learned how to count strides (which I think is a bit nuts) but she set up two jumps fairly close together and asked me what it looked like, and I said...hm, a short 4 or long 3. Then she asked me how to count and she paced it out and I was exactly right...ha! But I told her she should make it a 2/3 stride so she can work on lengthening and collection between the jumps. The horse she leases is lovely and has a big jump, but she has a tendency to chip in instead of taking the long spot. So a little more trotting around for us and I decided to take Kiki on a little hack around the property because I knew she'd start getting goofy when the other horse came out to ride. I've only ridden around the property once with her and I was with my instructor and a schoolmaster as the leader, but she was really listening to me, so I figured I'd try. What's great about the barn I ride at is that there are LOTS of things that they horses there get over that would scare most...for example, a giant white tarp covering a building next to the barn, a jungle gym set up next to the outdoor riding area, wild turkeys that lurk in the bushes, goats that live on the farm, oh...and a pool with a slide in the yard that meets up with the barn entrance! So we just started walking...past the goats (she lives next to them so nothing new there), over to the broodmares and the babies, she looked (because she has to challenge everyone), continued on...now this is where I got a little nervous. Now we were leaving all the horses and heading away from the barn in the opposite direction. She got a little light on her feet, but never actually started jigging. Beauty (the bane of my existence) started calling to her and even though she called back she still held it together. We turned left and headed parallel to the property where see saw the geldings up on the left. I don't think she recognized them at first because she seemed to get her underwear in a bunch. We walked past them and headed back toward the barn passing her field last. There is a teeny, tiny part of me that thought she might spook and bolt (even thought she never has) to get home, but the more we walked the quieter she got and the looser the reins became. I was really proud of her and of myself for just sticking with her.
And what good ride would be complete without some bad behavior? She proceeded to act like an idiot on the ground, even threatening to kick me when I removed her saddle (something that seems to be getting worse) and that kind of activity will not be tolerated! We had a bit of a discussion about her getting hosed off but I came through on top.
I really hate the stupid halter that's on her now...even though it's fairly good quality she gets soooo dirty that I have to pull it over her head because the buckles get so dry. I think it's time to get her one of her own! She already has so many silly issues with her head the last thing I need is to be fighting with a halter as I trying to bridle her!
**In other super fun news I am farm-sitting Thursday and Friday for B and L! They are heading to the beach and I will be staying there to watch over everyone. I am a little nervous, but I know the horses really well and their schedules, so we are going over turnout/feed stuff tomorrow for a bit before my lesson, which should be a piece of cake since I help feed almost every time I am there. It's going to be so lovely to wake up on the farm and walk a few feet to feed the horses! I have never been so excited to muck stalls! When you grow up working to ride that work ethic sticks...it's rare that you will ever find me twiddling my thumbs around the farm!
***I am going to bring my camera so I can take loads of photos of everything!
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