SO BUSY!

Well, prep week is in full swing as I figure out how to get ready for our little event on Friday evening. I had a busy weekend dog-sitting, cleaning up the house, doing ALL THE LAUNDRY, and finding time to ride! Saturday I worked both shifts at the farm and took Lucy and my trainer's dog Bandit out with me for the day. Little did I know my boxer Hugo was completely pissed off and managed to not only escape his crate but create mayhem in the basement while we were gone. Ah well, his nickname isn't Houdini for nothing!

Look at my fancy show horse:/

Riley was not too thrilled to be yanked from his stall in the middle of second breakfast and his mid-morning snooze. I took a little trip to Bartville after I fed and turned everyone out where I picked up this blue halter for him. He gets rubs from his leather turnout one so he gets to look snazzy in this instead (and yes, it has a leather crown piece). I wanted to take him out into one of the big fields and do some trot sets and a few gallops in the Berny Bros. to see if I was in love and it was fantastic! I felt incredibly secure up and out of the saddle and Riley was well-behaved coming back to me every time. He definitely was huffing and puffing a little during the trot sets (which he thought were really stupid), but we powered through and his fitness (and mine) and my legs will thank me later. We kept it fairly simple 2 mins. trotting, 2 mins. walk. 2 mins trotting. Rinse repeat. The terrain is slightly hilly which is even better. Our canter sets were more like 1 minute canter, 2 minute walk, repeat. Then we walked to the very hilly part of the field and walked down the hills and cantered back up about a half a dozen times. He's feeling much stronger behind and I am so thankful to have hills to turn him out on and work him on! I made an offer on the saddle and I'm still waiting to hear back! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but it matches all my tack including my leather perfectly! My bridle is still a little lighter than I'd like but I picked up some neatsfoot oil so I can darken it when I clean all my tack this week.

Horse heaven.

Giving me some serious side-eye during our intervals.

He got a well deserved bath in our new wash stall! Yay! He's all beat up from his herd mates and he had a big swollen spot on his shoulder that was a bit worrisome, but he's also really sensitive so I know a few days away from the bachelor party will help his skin recover quickly. I would feel terrible brings my horse to a show with cuts and scrapes everywhere! I used some of the Absorbine massage foam that they sent me and I loved it. I think I had as much fun massaging it into Riley's muscles as he did. I scrubbed his sock in hopes that I could remove some of the dirt, manure and whatever else was on there so it wouldn't be so challenging to clean this week. To be fair, he's hardly had more than a hose down post-ride these days, so he got a thorough bathing Saturday! I still need to pull his mane and comb through his tail (and bang it again), but he should be looking very cute this week. I very, very tempted to braid him for the show even though it's just a little schooling show because it happens to be in the evening and I'll be at the farm all day. Plus I could really use the practice. I'm not gonna go crazy if I do though and I'll stick to rubber bands for now! I think turnout is really important and I'd love to see how he looks braided... not to mention his mane is wild no matter what the length!

Next up, I had the honor of riding one of Emily's horses! I had my choice between her super fancy mare Prima, or her gorgeous Two Punch baby Brody. I was a little short on time, so I opted for Prima. I haven't ridden her since maybe November but I've watched her blossom under Emily's training and boy is she fun to ride.

Equally enthusiastic.

My new saddle fits her pretty well so it was pretty great to try it on another horse to see how the balance felt. Prima's gaits have much more suspension than Riley's and I realized that it's been wayyyyy too long since I rode another horse than my own. *Note:I need to do this more often, preferably once a week or more. She's such a dream to ride and is has so much to teach me about sitting up and riding like an athlete instead of a passenger. We did lots and lots of serpentines at the trot and one of my favorite exercises which is making 10 meter circles in each corner of the arena, she moves so beautifully off the leg and it was so nice to ride a horse that reacts to that and lets me truly ride her from inside leg to outside hand (Riley is just starting to gather this concept). We cantered each way a couple of times and my God her canter is to die for. it's so uphill and fancy, she feels like a little sports car underneath of you. I got up out of the saddle in a light seat for one lap and then sat deeply and rode some really nice circles with her. She's all to eager to show off her changes and when you cross the middle of the ring you can already feel her setting herself up for them! Emily has been getting some tempis across the diagonal (3-4 changes every 2 strides), so the mare could certainly excell at pure dressage. I wish someone else had been at the farm because I would have LOVED to jump her, but I didn't want to take the risk. Plus, Lucy got loose in the middle of my ride and all of a suddenly I had her chasing me around the ring, I honestly wasn't sure what she'd do if she saw me riding a horse so I was ready to pull up and hop off if needed. Prima spooked once, but Lucy has a healthy respect for horses and just kind of hung out while we finished our ride. What a good pup!

Barn dog behaving herself in the ring.

This post took me a few days to write due to some unexpected changes in my schedule, so I didn't get to ride Monday or Tuesday! Whoops. Tonight, I'll have a jumping lesson with Emily and tomorrow I'll flat him in prep for Friday. I still don't have my ride times but I know it's between 3:30 and 6:30pm so I can always ride him a little in the morning if I feel like it. I still need to pull his mane and clean his tack but I can always bring his tack home with me Thursday evening:)

Here's a few cute photos from dog sitting over the weekend. Ruff life indeed for these three:

Bandit is a hound and tends to chase things so I thought Lucy could teach him the ropes of running loose at the barn. This worked remarkably well!

While I generally don't let the dogs on the couch it was a little hard to resist late Saturday night and then this happened. Cute overload!

I got a new laptop so hopefully my posts will be more timely!

50 degrees and sunny

Lambies sunbathing, seriously too much.

Saturday promised to be sunny and mild so I raced out quickly to the barn to get started on my chores for the day so I would have time for everything else. Emily and I and another boarder decided we wanted to ride ALL THE HORSES, so I hustled the morning away so we could make that happen. I wanted to give Riley a much needed bath after our ride so I could clip him Sunday. We didn't end up getting on until 12:30 or maybe even later because our friend was having the worst luck with her horses. The plan was to get on at the barn and hack up to her field (remember our property is huge). One had pulled a shoe, one was ouchy from just having his shoes pulled and the other had blown an abscess! So we while she fooled around with them Emily and I rode through Riley's field (20 acres) to check on their round bale in the shed (they had eaten every scrap) and when I turned him around to head back up the hill, he planted his feet and refused to leave his "home"! Ha! He hasn't been living outside that long, jeepers. So we had a little discussion about whether or not he could stay in his shed, which involved a tiny spanking (he gets sooo offended at the whip), I insisted that we lead the way because I don't want him needing a buddy to get past mental issues like that! We helped our friend pony her abscessed horse back down to the barn and I opted to get off and go give Riley a bath so he'd have time to dry in the sun. The plan was for me to ride Emily's new horse Brody, but by the time they got back from the first set it was getting late and I still had to finish my barn chores. Slight fail, but at least I got my horse ridden and bathed.

New Irish knit! Looking crazy butt high, I swear he's not this downhill!

I also brought my dog Lucy with me on Saturday and while she was incredibly well behaved she was very, very whiny when we came back from the first round of rides and I needed to let her blow of some steam. I took her up to Riley's field (with no horses in it) and let her go crazy in the snow. Nothin better than deep snow to wear out a pup.

Weeeeee! Crazy dog.

Surveying the landscape.

Sunday I left Lucy at home and decided I would go on a nice long hack to try to wear Riley out and then clip him. We had a wonderful hack that included some really fun hill work in Riley's field. There's really good footing around the inside perimeter and the snow had melted enough that the horses could actually move so it was really perfect. I was riding with Emily and her chestnut mare Kiwi who is extremely forward and has an enormous stride. Riley was excellent at keeping up with her and his trot felt amazing in the snow. I was posting so much higher and longer because he was forced to take these lofty steps! That field is going to be terrific in the spring for fitness work (it's at least a full mile all the way around and the hill part that we used is about a half a mile total. We met up again with our fellow friend at the top of the field and headed along the beautiful path that leads through the property. I made a rudimentary map of our trip.

The star is the barn and we headed left from there. The first red loop was our fun trot set through Riley's field, where it ends is where we met our friend at her field, then headed through the woods from there. Her other horse lost his mind when we left because he was alone, but our guys didn't seem to mind. There was a huge tree that had fallen in the woods that too dangerous to jump and we had to scale a crazy embankment around it! Thankfully, all of our hunter paces have paid off and Riley is remarkably sure-footed and doesn't leap off of banks etc. Right after that was a water crossing that was filled with branches and he didn't bat an eye! Hooray! I think living in a field where his water source is a stream has quell his issue with water. When we got to the T intersection we made a right and headed up the road and went exploring a bit on a quieter road which you can sorta tell was a bit of a failure... we actually ended up in someone's driveway (oops) and came back down to the main road (which is also very quiet). Sadly I didn't bring my phone on this hack (because I took my vest off just before I got on) but we had to pass a couple of scary things along the way including a big mushroom facility that had lots of heavy machinery working out front just out of our sight line. I have to say that all three handled everything in stride and Riley only had a few baby moments of getting a little jiggy (like when a herd of horses came galloping up suddenly). We turned bac around after awhile and our friend went one way (back through the woods) and we went back up the road the direct route to the barn. Riley threw another little fit about having to leave his friend, but I pony kicked him out of it. We had another nice trot up the road* to avoid cars from not seeing us and all told we out for about 5 miles. Not a bad little hack for our first real ride back!

*Notice I said "trot up the road" -- yes, Riley can now trot beautifully on asphalt!

He was a bit sweaty when I got back so I toweled his girth area, let him chill for a bit and Emily gave him a tiny dose of ace. Her only experience of clipping him she recalled him acting like a brute so it was just a little bit of a security blanket. He was terrific for most of it, sadly I wasn't able to finish (I got about 85% done)... only his hind end was left and a little around his face but being that the temps are dropping AGAIN and more snow is on the way it's not the worst thing in the world. I gave him a hunter clip and left a saddle pad. I was so happy to shave off the areas where his rain rot has been awful. I'm sure it felt really good for him. Oh, also, he's a lightweight.

SOOOO relaxed.

He was pretty much over it by this stage.

The clippers started to dull, so I'll clean up all the details and finish his behind soon. But to be fair, I haven't clipped a horse since I was a teenager and he doesn't look that bad! I'm sure he'll be so much happier when we're working now, especially since he was sweaty after a mostly walking 5 mile hack.

That's all for now, I have come down with some horrible cold or something and spent the night coughing and sweating out a fever, so I'll check back later for spelling and grammar when I'm not loopy on dayquil.