Tuesday, February 8, 2011

89 and three rides

Days like today really make me appreciate the priviledges I have been given.  Not only am I able to attend a great private university, but because of my parent's generousity and willingness to pay my basic living expenses I have the chance to own a talented horse.  Today I woke up around 7:30 and made myself a bowl of cereal.  Before long I was on the road headed out to the barn to work with two of the three projects.  I figured that  I would work with the two that aren't mine so that if I didn't have time for the third it would be my own problem.  I think its necessary for me to make sure that I'm doing all I can for the other two as their owners are very generous to me.

The yellow pony was a firecracker this morning when I got started with her, but overall seemed very happy to be getting messed with.  I tacked her up, I'm still using the full cheek slow twist snaffle on her, a bridle without a noseband, and the running martingale, and off we went.  You'd think someone had lit a firecracker next to the ring with out she was acting when I got on, but after about 10 minutes of just slow slow slow you could see the lightbulb go off in her head as she realized what her job was.  We putzed around the ring for the next 10 minutes at a dead head trot.  PERFECT!  Slow and steady will win the race pony, I promise!  No cantering yet, I'm going to build her up slowly and hopefully I can loosen up her hind end and get that cross cantering issue worked out.  We'll see how that goes.  Next I pulled Emma out and got her ready.  I used the same saddle for her, she looks rather funny in English tack!  I used a corkscrew snaffle, although in reality she doesn't need much in her mouth, and put boots on her back legs and out to the ring we went!  This mare is broke western pleasure and WOW is that a different ride than what I'm used to.  My job is to get her really moving forward and out so that she can loosen up through her shoulder and free up her whole body.  The problem is that she was broke and is a western pleasure horse so all she really knows is collection.  The more I ride the more I should be able to loosen and bend and really get her going forward though.  She's truly like sitting on a cadillac and I feel very lucky to be able to ride her.  


Tuesdays and Thursdays are always a rough day for classes since I have 3 back to back from 10:30-4.  There's not much I can do about that though, I just need to suck it up.  Nothing too exciting happened today, and I made it through alive.

Afterwards I headed back out to the barn to play with my mare.  I brought her in and since the barn was empty I decided to skip the cross ties idea and tie her up in the stall.  By tying her in the stall she wouldn't be able to dance around, and she'd still be able to see her friends outside.  Thankfully she didn't scream, and she hardly danced around.  She just watched as Prince, Dazzle, Savannah, Moose, Ritter, Buck and Max all enjoyed their freedom.  Poor mare actually has a job!  Once she was tacked I headed out to the ring and started the process of mounting.  We don't have a true mounting block which I like because it means the horses need to pay attention and always be mindful.  I led Aston over to the green boxes and spent a few minutes teaching her what would be expected of her.  In a few minutes she seemed to understand, although I'm sure it will continue to be an issue.  Anyway, I walked around for about 10 minutes in both directions just practicing some steering basics.  Steering is an issue that she hasn't really figured out yet.  She doesn't quite know what happens when I open my right rein or why she feels pressure from my outside leg.  No worries, in time she will figure it out.  We even trotted today though!  Cluck, leg, cluck, leg.  She isn't really sure what is going on but in time she will.  She is used to a LOT of contact, and because of that I assume a LOT of leg.  Thankfully she doesn't have much knowledge so I'll be able to educate her the way I want to, fun!  

Christine and I went out to dinner tonight with my fellow AXiD friend, the other Kelsey.  I wanted the two to meet, and I'm glad they like each other!  Its always nice when close friends from different parts of life get to meet and like each other.  I'm certainly lucky to have such wonderful friends!

After dinner Christine came over for some P90X, today was Cardio and it combines a little bit of each DVD.  It wasn't too bad although I was a little bit sore from the core work from the day before.  Tomorrow is Arms and Back along with Ab Ripper X.  Hopefully the soreness will eventually go away... Although I have a feeling I'm going to be SORE tomorrow.  

88 days left. 

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