Wednesday I woke up feeling giddy with excitement at the thought of riding again but when I opened the curtains at 7:00 am, it was raining buckets, with thunder, lightning and gusts of wind not unlike those of a tropical storm. I puttered around the house until 10:30 am, when the rain finally stopped and the wind died down a bit.
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| This is what it looked like outside. Lovely weather, right? *sarcasm* At least it was not hot-around 76 degrees. |
We started with a short walk on the longe to warm up, no side reins, but Lily was feeling frisky, so I let her begin trotting. Today's session was simply with the purpose of letting her get all excess energy out of her system, if we didn't get to achieve anything else with the weather. I had to smile when she started head-tossing and doing a snappy extended trot that almost had suspension to it. Of course I didn't have my camera on me to capture it-I had left it inside the barn for fear it would get wet if it suddenly decided to rain. Lily picked up a canter, and I allowed her. We then switched directions. I asked for a trot. She trotted for one circle then moved up into a canter. It started to drizzle. Lily cantered faster. All of a sudden, she bucked and took off in a mad gallop away from me, making a beeline in the general direction of the gate. She caught me so by surprise that the longe line escaped from my hands. This was not a problem, as she did come to a stop at the fence between the two gates, and allowed me to catch her. Right at this moment, it started to rain hard. So we had to run back inside. I stopped by the truck to grab my raincoat, then promptly put Lily up in the cross ties to wait out the rain. The minute I had snapped her in, the rain slowed to a sporadic drizzle. I brought her back outside, raincoat on. Back in the arena, I had her walk again, but she was still frisky, so I allowed her to trot and canter. She crowhopped once when asking her for a change of direction, and was acting weird and nervous like when she first arrived at the barn, but I attributed it to the horrible weather, the cooler temperature, and my sense of urgency. We moved across the arena in 30 meter circles, and in the far corner, she decided to take off in another gallop, but this time maintaining the circle around me. I slowed her down, and it started to rain harder. I figured out that Miss Priss doesn't like to get wet! *lol* She kept bolting to run away from the rain! I made her walk under the pelting rain before walking in, just so she'd learn to keep her cool despite a little water, then brought her back into the barn. This time I had actually taken all of her equipment off, when it stopped raining entirely and the ominous darkness of the sky lifted-it wasn't going to rain again for awhile. So again I put all her equipment back on (I have a very tolerant mare; she didn't even make a face at the idea of working again! Dianne had showed up at this point to take care of Pink and she laughed at us-"You're attempting it again?!") and brought her out to the arena a 3rd time. This time I snapped on the side reins, and we started over, walk/trot/canter/trot/walk in both directions. By this time she had settled down entirely and we ended up having a productive session after all.
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| Warmup walk with side reins. This was our third attempt at a workout session, after she'd settled down. |
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| Yeah, her head. But she was stepping up under herself nicely. |
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| Cool down free walk, sans side reins. I love that she actually will do this too under saddle now. |
We worked for maybe 15 minutes in both directions, then I cooled her down, hosed her off, and put her on the cross ties with her ice boots on her hind legs. Reason? I lock her in her stall when it is this rainy, because she'll go out in the walkout and destroy the footing-it gets very deep if the horses are allowed outside when it rains. Her stall is large-14'x14'. But she does stock up a little when cooped up in the stall with no walkout and no turnout, especially after having been exercised. I've found that if I ice her legs after a workout when she's locked in the stall, the fluid buildup in her legs the next morning will be negligible.
It rained and stormed the rest of the day, but that night it cleared up, and a wonderful, beautiful cold front came in! I woke up at 6:00 am Thursday morning just to open the sliding door of the living room and feel the wonderful outdoor cold. It was 62 degrees. In South Florida, cold weather = beautiful weather. I was supposed to work today but had been called the day before requesting me to stay home because there were no patients in hospital. My paycheck is going to majorly suck, between the 2 days I took off due to the strep throat (we get no sick time) and this, but at least I got to ride in this beautiful weather.
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| The sky this morning. Gorgeous, huh? :) |
Lily's legs were minorly stocked up this morning, as expected. I removed the stall chain from the walkout so I wouldn't forget later, and tacked her up. I changed out my awesome Parelli-type rope reins for the more traditional web reins that originally came with my bridle that are still brand new. I have to get used to the feel of them again for the show Sunday.
I longed her for about 10 minutes total, first without side reins to warmup, and then with. Just walk/trot/canter. No signs of the previous day's spazzing out; just relaxed and loose. And for the first time ever, she was holding herself in a frame at the trot with the side reins clipped on, tracking up and her head vertical instead of above the bit. Now I just need her to do this with me on her! :)
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| Pretty! |
Then I got on. We did a long walk warmup for about 15 minutes (I used to be really good about looking at my watch before a ride, but lately I just get lost in the flow of it), first on the buckle, then a collected walk, then some shoulder-ins, haunches-ins and small leg yields. As soon as I asked her to trot, she asked to stretch down! This was a first. The rest of the session was like this-Lily continued to be relaxed, reaching for the bit constantly and holding it for a couple of strides. We had a nice canter to the left, but to the right, she threw her head up, took off at a gallop down the long side of the arena, swapped leads midway, and then I slowed her down carefully before we came to the corner. This happened twice. We did some more trot work to get her relaxed again, then I asked her for the canter again and rose into two-point. Nice, relaxed easy canter. This confirmed that it was me, not something bothering her. I am horrible with the right canter cue and tend to ask for it too strongly from years of riding OTTBs-I was cueing for the lead with my seat, then driving her forward, hence the head in the air and the ensueing gallop.
We trotted a little more to end on a good relaxed note, then I hosed down her neck, legs and hindquarters to take advantage of the cool breeze, and got back on to stroll down to the field. We did a couple of circles at the front end of the field, and returned home, where I gave her a good bath. Every time it rains she starts to get rainrot on the fronts of her hind cannon bones, even if I keep her indoors. So I scrubbed her down with Eqyss Microtek shampoo, left it on for 10 minutes, rinsed, and poured my vet's leave-in antifungal medication over her legs. This usually takes care of it within 24 hours. When I first bought her, she developed the nastiest fungal infection I had seen in a long time-it looked like she had mange. The skin over her hindquarters, gaskins, and around the entire hind cannon bones was crusty and painful. She lost all her hair over these areas. A round of antibiotics and the wonder antifungal medication took care of it within a week. I wish I had "before" pictures.
Her coat has pretty much grown back in 2 weeks! Arrgh! Oh well. I'm not body-clipping again before the show; my body-clipping skills are less than stellar at this moment, and I like her coat at its current state-it's just slightly long, and has turned into a deep dark chocolate brown. We'll do some face & leg trimming today or tomorrow, and that will be that.
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| This photo was taken last week. She's already fuzzier than that! But you can see how her coat has darkened, and the area under her flank looks redder. |
waving my show times with a big smile on her face. They were supposed to have been e-mailed the day before, and I had e-mailed her Wednesday night kind of frantic, automatically assuming that there had been a problem with my registration. (Yes, I'm a worrywart). As it turns out, entries had been delayed, so posting of the times had also been delayed. My turn in Intro A Open is at 9:16 am, Intro B Open is at 9:48 am (I go second in both) and Intro C Novice is at 10:36 am. I go first in C, and it's only me and a guy riding a horse named Hansel (Warmblood much?) The one thing here is that I thought I had requested Intro C Open, and apparently there is no such thing; it's not even listed as a class on the show times sheet...so now I have to find out what happens with Intro C, as I thought I couldn't go in a Novice class if I was showing in Open. If I have to scratch C I honestly don't mind, because I don't think we are quite ready for that class yet, and it's only $15 down the drain (a much needed $15 right now, but still)...I had been counting on having that extra week I lost due to being sick & rain to practice our canter departs. We'll see what can be done the next 2 days. I have a lesson tonight with Judy, so I will find out. Ahh the ins & outs of showing...Jumpers was so easy! You just show up, have a clear round without time faults, and that's it. *lol*
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