Down Days

Prair had yesterday off, just some long hand walks to get out of the stall - but today it was back to work schooling for the second week.

One of the benefits of this particular facility is that it's got miles (and miles and miles) of trails that head off right from the arenas.  It also has a fun XC course and Derby Field, but I've been told experimenting with those fun new things while "trying to relax the mare" might not be helpful.  Plus, if anyone is taking that mare XC it's me.. so that will just have to wait!

Glad to see that she's getting of out the sandbox for some time on the trails though.  Hopefully it helps her relax and unwind a bit too!

Shiny Show Mare Explores...

Tomorrow I'm back up to the show to watch the two Pro Days again.  Not sure what Prair is getting entered in, I suppose I'll find out when I get there!

game time!

Gus & P's Big Day Out

Prair has been hogging the bloggy spotlight for a while, so I thought it might be nice to shift our attention to the other two beasts and give their cute beaks the attention they deserve.

Gus and P went for a big trail ride last week and after polite requests pleading for photos... D obliged and sent me lots of snaps from their ride.  They both behaved wonderfully (ish), although when they got to a puddle/pond of doom, both turned into wimpies and refused to lead.

Gus was deemed suitable for D's not-very-horsey SO, and I was glad to hear that he lived up to his "husband safe" label.  That horse, man - so stinkin cute.  Though P's little red ears are pretty adorable too :)

buddies

Gus looking distinctly less interested in this adventure than P

Gus and D's guy looking like a handsome pair

Headed into the woods

scary bridge of doom

scarier water

a very good P

Gus Ears

cutest.

What good beasts they are.  Gus had another trail adventure with some of D's friends later in the week and if the weather holds (and the mud stops sliding all over the place) I'm going to head up for some low-key prenatal "trail riding."

Back on the Trail (and back to the Outdoor)

It was a great weekend with the horses.  Friday I conned The Boy into coming out to the barn with me and giving me a hand scrubbing and medicating everyone's scratches.  (super helpful, also super gross).

Saturday, Supermom drove up to take a trail ride with me, which was the first time I have been able to get Pia actually out on the trails since she came home.  P was a bit of a chicken to get started, but once she got moving she was calm, relaxed and an old pro.  The only unfortunate issue was the "chicken" mode happened right at the beginning as we were leaving the property which resulted in us getting off and walking the horses to keep them moving.  Not so tragic aside from the fact that we were walking them UP A MOUNTAIN and I thought it was more than probable that I was going to suffer a heart attack before I legged back up and let the horses do the heavy lifting.  (note to self, relearn how to drive to gym).

The ride itself was great.  The ground has been mostly frozen so mud was minimal and the fog made the trees fairly pretty and quiet.  It was a great way to spend an hour in the saddle. 

Supermom's view through P's Ears

When we finally made it back, we tootled around the arena a bit and enjoyed the horses before calling it a day and retiring everyone back to some warm, dry stalls.

Supermom and cute P

She's so damn adorable when she's not actively biting you...

I was thrilled to see that Pia's comfort out on the trails is still there.  She's come such a long way from where she was when she started at Summer Camp it is really thrilling to see how much flexible and relaxed she is in new situations now.  Very proud of the little red squirrel.

Prairie's big success came on Sunday when increased temps thawed the outdoor enough to warrant a return to jumping outside.  S set a simple four stride line and after a brief warm up I began by trotting each fence individually on a large circle, then cantering each fence on a large circle.

I'll admit that I was a bit nervous about returning to the outdoor.  Prairie has been so insanely good working inside this winter, that I have been dreading what would happen when we moved back to a bigger space and no longer had confining walls to support our balance and focus. 

Prairie played to all my worries when she immediately resumed freaking out about the "scary end" away from the barn - but after 10 minutes of small circles and shoulder in, she came back from outer space and resumed working like a regular horse. 

Cantering the verticals was... easy.  Relaxed, slow, balanced.  I easily moved Prairie up to bigger distances, and easily reorganized her after each fence.  I was so flipping impressed I was beaming in disbelief.  Then we worked the line.   Something that is always slightly problematic for us.  Prairie gets wiggly, tense and just a bit discombobulated in lines more than two strides.  All of these things were true this time as well - but they lacked the blind-panic-scoot upon landing that was de rigueur last time we worked over fences outside. 

I fell back on what we learned in our grid last week and focused on low and wide hands along with a very supportive leg between fences and we improved dramatically. 

Mind you, up to this point we had been working off our right lead and jumping away from home, toward the scary end - something that always gives us better breaks and control than we we canter (/run madly) away from the scary end and toward the sweet, sweet salvation of the main barn.

Feeling bold and confident we changed directions and came at the line off our left lead, toward home... And Prairie was 100% with me.  I dialed her canter back a bit more than necessary, but we went in quiet, intending to add a fifth stride, which I ended up having to move up to.... and we came out quiet (and on the correct lead!).  Miracle.

Our other new trick was the ability to maintain our canter aaalllllll the way arrrouuuunnnnd and back to the line.  Four months ago, quietly cantering the long side was a challenge, let alone landing from a line (going home) regrouping, maintaining a balanced canter and being organized enough to jump back into the line. 

But we did, and then we started playing with our adjustability.  I opened Prairie up, we did the line in 4, then I brought her back and did it in 5.  Then we opened up and did it in 4... then back for 5 again.

MIND BLOWN.  The mare was quiet, focused and nearly had a loop in her rein the entire time.

So impressed.  so, SO impressed with her ability to take our new balance and focus to the Outdoor arena and still give me the same ride. 

It was a good horsey weekend....

Outside the Sandbox

As much as I love trails rides and tout the "outside the arena" work as Pia's primary salvation... I still hadn't taken Prairie on a proper trail ride (until today).

We've done lots of property walks (which are exciting enough, thanks).  And she worked the perimeter of the property out at Summer Camp back in September, but I haven't headed out on an honest to goodness nose-to-tail ride with her yet. 

Perhaps it's because I'm not 100% confident in our brakes, or because more often than not when we leave the property there's a not so small part of the mare's brain that is totally cool with running away with me.

Maybe that's why.. ..

But the fact of the matter is that our current barn is blessed to be backed up next to a few decent "mountains" with tons of trails.  One of those mountains is actually a horsey-house-development and it has awesome trails (some wide, some narrow) twisting all the way up and around the hills.  Basically it's extremely horse friendly and all the dogs/chickens/teenagers that lurk in the shadows are used to horses passing by and tend not to behave like idiots. 

So when the weather was crisp but clear when I arrived for my lesson this am, S suggested we bag the transition drills and go do some hill work on the trail. 

SOLD.

I opted to put Prairie in jump tack (with martingale and extra brakes in the mouth) just in case she was a little... distracted.  S had ventured up one of the hills with her on Sunday with no drama so my anxious mind was at east, but this time we wouldn't have a stalwart trail veteran with us.  Just Prairie and another trail-green-bean to freak each other out and no one to take the lead.

Turns out it wasn't an issue.  Prairie was perfectly willing to blaze the trail (literally, since said trail was hidden under a colorful layer of fall leaves...) and aside from snorting and blowing like a dragon for the first 20 minutes she totally held it together.

Prairie was just as confused as I was as to where the trail actually went...

 We had a few moments where she had to stop and snort at an offensive stump or fencepost.  But she eventually went past everything without much drama. 

The really cool part is that this trail system is all hills all the time and at first I nearly thought the mare was lame, but then S helpfully pointed out that she wasn't lame, she was just lifting her back and really pushing from behind.

ohhhhhh.  So that's what that feels like.... neat.

We turned around after about 30 minutes and although I was nervous about descending the crazy hills that we had already clambered up, Prairie was oddly mindful about sitting back and carefully picking her way down the muddy slopes.  I was shocked that I could basically give Prairie her head and let her pick her own way down.  If I were a betting woman I would have put good money down guessing that the mare would be a loon and skid/scramble/run down without much head for footing or her limbs...

So I was quite pleased when our entire ride back home was just as careful (if a touch faster) as our ride out. 

It also didn't hurt that the weather was gorgeous, the forest was beautiful and a total break from our normal routine.

When we got back to the farm I popped into the arena for a few transitions to test her focus.  She went right to work and I called it a day after only a few minutes of serpentines. 

So fun.  Maybe she'll be able to keep up with Pia on the trail after all....