Sometimes You Just Have to GET ON

I think I mentioned it, but I've been in a weird mode of loving my barn time but being totally unmotivated to ride.

Totally.

It happens every few months, where the notion of tacking up and rolling the dice on what the P's will give me just sounds... arduous.

This morning I was scheduled for a 10:30 lesson with Prairie.  A muddy, wet, soggy Prairie who hasn't been ridden since Friday (and not by me in a week).  Add to that a slight cold that's trying to blossom into full blown snotty-sore-throatness.  And I was 99% committed to asking S to take the ride while I watched.

I did manage to squeeze myself into breeches and tall boots (to look like I intended to ride if nothing else..) before leaving the house in case S couldn't, or my fistful of cough drops magically recalled my drive to ride.

Maybe it actually was the cough drops, or maybe it was just going through the motions, but once the mare was groomed (ish, there's only so much mud one can get out without a steam cleaner) and tacked I was feeling pretty good about legging up.

giant beak.

I did opt for a quick lunge first.  The indoor was filled with gross farrier-hoof-burning smoke and the pounding rain was causing people to dart in and out of doorways in a very Prairie-concerning fashion.

Now, lunging Prairie is a crap shoot.  She's good on the lunge, and doesn't pull, or buck or fart around.  But the scurrying around in a circle can either get some of the frisky out, or totally escalate the gerbils to full panic.  Especially in the canter, she can let herself get a wee bit off balance and then it's just a hop, skip and a scoot to total meltdown.

Ergo, 10 minutes of lunging can actually do more harm than good in terms of quieting her brontosaurus brain.

Lucky for me there was no scooting so the 10 minutes of trot work and a wee bit of cantering seemed to take the edge off.

Also, the pelham that I've been schooling in a couple times a week has been requisitioned by it's actual owner which meant that I had the plain KK snaffle back on the bridle.  Not the twist.  Not the elevator bit.  The plain, chunky happy snaffle.  (hmm).

Turns out, the mare was pretty good!  If anything she was a bit dull - both to my legs and my hands.  I kept getting suckered into holding up her front end but S had me halt, and do our slow rein back to unlock and re-soften which helped quite a bit.

Then we did a really fun trot pole exercise which looked like this:

We started by coming up the center line, over the first pole, then collecting and turn back (either left or right) over one of the side poles.  Focusing on turning from the hind end and not falling on the inside shoulder.  For Prairie, (and me) this is hard.

The idea is to figure eight back and forth, going both directions with lots of opportunity to sit back and lift through the turns.  Good exercise for both of us since I can't possibly get away with relying on my inside rein, and Prairie didn't have time to get strung out or disengaged..  Brilliant really.

After about 10 minutes of trotting the figure eights, S asked us to add a canter transition after the angled pole, then return to the trot before turning back up the center line.  This made me really half halt over the poles and emphasized the need from Prair to be in my outside rein as we turned back to the rail.  Otherwise there was no shot of getting a halfway decent step into the canter, or having the balance to come back down 3 strides later.

The mare was... fabulous.

Then, about 50% of the time we would keep our canter and do a full 20m circle over both the angled poles, then return to the trot, back up the center line, change directions and canter the poles on the other lead.  Prairie put in a good show on this.  She didn't have any rage blackouts regarding the canter poles and even managed to add strides which prevented a strung out bounding stride.  Magical.

Again.  All still a bit dead to my leg and hand, but a hell of a lot better than her being overly sensitive, or loopy or scooty.

Finished up with some stirrup-less torture for me and called it a day.

Can you believe it? 3 days off, no martingale, a super soft bit and a happy, reasonable mare? I am shocked.  shocked I say.

As is usually the case, I'm so glad I made myself ride.  It was productive, energizing and totally rewarding.  I don't know what causes the no-ride-funks, but every time as soon as I swing back up in the irons I'm pleased as punch to be there and not quite sure what I was avoiding.

Mares.  They never give you what you're expecting...

As for Pia, she's with S today hopefully repeating their cavaletti work. So it's looking like a good day for our GPA! we might even achieve that elusive 2.0!

Tomorrow I'm stuck in meetings all day, but Thursday I get to hitch up the new truck (!!) and take both mares back to Summer Camp for a day of toe trimming.  P1 is due and my regular farrier (who I don't really use since I do P2's feet myself..)  looked at Pia's cute short, round feet with Natural Balance shoes on front and thought I was intentionally crippling her.

Since her heels are just starting to really widen and we finally have her back in a size 2 shoe I really don't want to impede her progress with a bad trim or different strategy.  Instead, we're off to see Cowboy Man so he can reset her fronts and give me some feedback on Prairie's feet as well.

When he saw Prairie a month ago, he was really pleased with her feet and only commented that perhaps I could work on her bars a bit.  I totally confess that I am terrified to take a knife to the bottom of a foot so I'd like that first session to be supervised.  Seems more than prudent.

Fun field trip coming up!

Just Shove It Down the Chimney...

Pardon me for a moment while I regale the spoiled-rottenness that I have become (as have my mares).  Apparently my increasing horse-trailering-events have been stressing out the Husband.  Mostly because if I want to haul the trailer I need to haul with his truck.  Not an issue except that his truck is a company truck and something that he actually needs to execute his job on a daily basis.  Additionally, he's sometimes outon a job site on a Saturday (or Sunday) which means I can't necessarily assume that weekend trips are fair game. 

So far our solution to this little conflict of interest has been that I ask politely and try to limit the times I steal the truck during the week and he tries his best not to panic about having to go out and do an emergency job while I'm tootling around with the horses on a Wednesday.

Ultimately this was not ideal for him (though I didn't have too many complaints) and his (obvious) solution was to just shove an F-350 down the chimney for Christmas.

***grin***

I fully admit that this is an extravagant, lovely, fairy tale solution.  But I'm not going to complain.  Not while I'm rolling down the road in this beautiful thing, enjoying my seat heaters and blasting bad pop music out of the speakers. 

rhar.

It's so sexy. 

Anyway, I'm beyond thrilled.  I can't actually really put into words how much fun it is. 

Is it absurd that we are a two diesel truck family? Yes.  Totally absurd.  But we also own a Smartcar so the gas mileage gods aren't too angry with us...  In point of fact, when I'm not hauling the trailer, this thing is averaging 18.5mpg.  My volvo only squeaks out 19mpg which means I don't have to feel too guilty taking the truck instead.  And this weekend with one horse in the back of the trailer we got about 15.5mpg... better than I was expecting.

So.  in conclusion.  I'm totally spoiled.  I'm also totally obsessed with the new truck and really (really really) thrilled with how well it tows.

In other news.  The girls have been devising new methods to further cover themselves in mud.  Somehow Prairie even got mud inside her shoulder guard and Pia got mud UNDER her forelock.   They seem to have a shared talent in that very specific regard. 

Other than that there's not much to report.  The holidays are quickly eating up my normal barn time.  Between year end stuff for the business, holiday parties and the inevitable errands associated with gift shopping and hosting friends, the girls are getting lots of pats and cookies, but significantly fewer schooling sessions... I'd give them an official few weeks off if we weren't planning on a little dressage clinic this weekend with an instructor who's visiting the farm.  I suppose it's worth some preparation for that... Argh.

I'm too busy trying to figure out what all the buttons in the truck do. :)

Also, I love how it looks with our trailer.  I'll never keep the black clean, but with the dark wheels I think it looks pretty sharp with the gray/black of the trailer.  

Does anyone need a ride anywhere?  Cause I'll totally pick you up...

Portraiture

Prairie was lucky enough to have our friends (the incomparable Joe + Jill) come out to the barn and take a few pictures.  Joe and Jill are fabulous people, fabulous friends and fan-ta-bu-lous photographers.  They did our wedding (and made the whole thing look even more magical) but have never shot horses before.  A few months ago they asked if I would be willing (willing!) to let them come snap some pics of Prairie and stretch their skills and portfolio a little outside their norm. 

Obviously I jumped at the chance to be guinea pigs.  Prairie was a snorting monster, Joe and Jill's two (adorable) kids had a blast scampering around the property and all in all we had a good time.  They wanted to play with their light a lot so we stuck to portraits which were easier to accomplish while trying to keep the big soft lights from tipping over in the mud.  Not exactly their normal studio shoot... :)

Prairie was great about the flashes and looming lights and only tried to eat a camera lens a couple of times (whoops).  Here's a few of my favorites (one already being the new banner).  I love how goofy Prairie looks in some of them.  Though we look down right classy in a couple shots if I do say so myself. 

Raising Your GPA (Good P Average)

This weekend I discovered a new measurement tool for how my day at the barn goes - my GPA. 

Now unlike High School and College where my GPA floated somewhere north of 3.7 without much effort, the new GPA (Good P Average) falls somewhat lower, even when considering a perfect score is a 2.0 (two P's... so two possible points).

If a mare is great and happy and a pleasure to work with, she gets her full point.  A good ride but tough? .75.  Kind of a twit? somewhere between .25 and .50.  And of course totally god awful would earn a mare a big fat 0.0 on the day (and possibly a for sale sign). 

Now I get that I'm adding their scores (not really averaging), but I never said it was a perfect system. 

Saturday Prairie was a good girl, but a tough ride.  We tried to do some figure eights over a cavaletti in the indoor, but Prairie was all tweedley and got so damn freaked out by the 8" pole that we had to make it a bit more remedial before we found success.  But she finished on a good note and earned a solid .60 for the day.  When she wasn't anxious though, Prairie was very balanced and engaged in her canter.  Considering that we were back in a snaffle I appreciated that effort and focus.

Pia was a star for S, but got a little exuberant and wanted to crow hop around a bit so she finished with a .75. 

Grand total for the day?  1.35. 

Sunday however I came home with a rather dismal 1.0 GPA.  The morning started out gorgeous and we had every intention of taking the girls for a trail ride.  But by the time I got to the barn the clouds blew in and it was pouring buckets.  Since lessons were filling up the indoor we still rode outside but the slop encouraged us to stay at home instead of risking worse weather on the trail and the inevitable mud. 

I put Prairie back in the pelham and planned to do a quick 20 minute school, almost like a show warmup.  Hop on, walk a bit, pop some transitions.  Shoulder in each way.  Short canter tour and done.  No need to work too hard when the rain is coming down sideways. 

Prairie however had other plans.  She was nervous, fidgety and explosive.  I think she was just distracted and excited at the cold air/rain and looking for excuses but it was not enjoyable.  I tried diffusing with some of our magical halt/slow rein back stuff but every halt rendering her snorty and pawing.  And our rein back was rushed and anxious, or totally ignored and replaced with small bunny hops/threats to rear.

Not. Okay.

Meanwhile Pia was the cutest little squirrel imaginable.  She was soft, but attentive.  Both her ears and lower lip were floppy the whole time and she was perfectly happy to walk and trot around in the rain splashing through all the puddles. (she's still being ridden in a rope halter with two reins to the nose)

I finally got so fed up/freaked out with Prairie that S and I swapped beasties.  She tried to walk Prairie calmly (emphasis on tried) while I finished on a happy note with Miss Pia. 

Prairie really cemented her 0.0 score when walking her out to pasture was more of a kite flying exercise than anything else.  Pia on the other hand was super soft and very obedient with her leading exercises even with her anticipation of rejoining Prairie out in pasture.  So Pia carried the team with a 1.0.

The Good (albeit soggy) Sister (at least on Sunday)