Free bird!

I took a mental health day on Thursday to reset my messy mind a little. I've got lots of exciting things going on in various aspects of my life and I think that taking the time to pause and reflect is important so as not to get bogged down with the details! Horses have always offered me that sort of reprieve and I'm grateful to be able to turn to them when I needed a distraction or support (or just a good laugh).

We're almost snow-free at the farm, but with all that snow melt comes MUD and lots of it. Not to mention the ring is super cuppy and deep right now as it attempts to dry out and drain. It was too sloppy to ride in the ring so we decided to free jump a bunch of the horses (Riley included). Our free jump area is really cool. It was once a ring designed for little kid pony rides so it's essentially a ring with another ring inside it (so that the ponies couldn't dash into the center or run away). It has footing and is large enough for the horses to get a nice pace and rhythm.

Riley heard that Bobby was the fanciest show pony, so he got jealous and struck this sweet pose to show off all his angles.

Riley is a pro in the free school and was the only horse that didn't stop or hesitate at a fence. We brought some scary barrels that Emily had been threatening to make me jump so I thought Riley could be introduced to them in a safer situation (read: without me clinging on for dear life). He's also pretty silly, because he likes to go in both directions (where as most horse pick one way and go with that).

Some highlights, Riley started off a wee bit sassy:

Riley: keep up that chasing me with a whip Mom... (side note: that hind step)

I'M A WILD STALLION

WEEEEEEE!

And then he promptly got down to business. We kept the session short, and one he was warmed up over a few fences we added some fill (cones and barrels).

Warm up X. I am in love with his expression over fences.

Little bit of filler = slightly more effort.

My goal was to finish with the barrels upright to get Riley thinking about where his legs are. He's an economical jumper for sure, but he's tight and clean with his front end. While he might not have the most exuberant form, I'm happy that he knows how to jump cleanly and not waste a bunch of effort over fences. Getting him to jump over the fence vs. UP and over makes for a much smoother ride!

He's finally pushing off evenly behind

Omg, ribs? On Riley? No touchy!

Sweet action shot of me (he takes very little encouragement -- which is good since I had the lunge whip tangled up most of the time)

Ha! He looks bored.

Those are 4 foot standards -- I think our goals are attainable.

I love this gif because it was Riley's first time over the vertical barrels, he came around the corner, saw something had changed, got a bit of a weird spot and pulled some 5th leg shit and got up and over cleanly. Then, he got mad at himself, turned around and came back around to it on his own!!!

Lest you believe he's getting too skinny this winter -- He's still a hunk (though I did up his grain a smidgen now that he's back in work)

I'm glad we got to knock the rust off for jumping because we are having a gymnastics lesson tomorrow! Emily has been scheming of some fun ways to torture me for our first jumping lesson back together!

I'm finally coming to the realization that my baby horse is no longer a baby. We trust each other implicitly and we have a very good relationship... I've been beating myself up a little bit lately for not being further along in our career together. We have had some real ups and downs throughout our time together, but 2016 feels full of possibilities (and I know there's danger in just saying such things out loud). I was washing his face off yesterday with some fancy anti-fungal soap (he has a horrible fungus on his face) and although he put up a little fight while I tried to soap him up, when I got a fluffy, clean towel to dry him off, he stood there, like a puppy listening to me talk to him about how sorry I was that his face was looking so bad and how I promised to make him feel better really soon. His whole demeanor softened and it was like he could tell I was trying to help him.

I lead him up to his field while sitting on the back of a truck bed (because #safetyfirst and #donttellponyclub) and as he followed along and I giggled like a kid I realized more than ever that I have SUCH A COOL HORSE.

Poor fungus-y pony thinks his Momma is alright too.