Full Moon

Lily is adjusting to the new changes in her life, and so am I. The day after we moved into the barn, another boarder arrived: Jennifer and her mom, with their TB mare Miami. I went with Judy to pick up Miami, and between the two of us we got the mare into Judy's trailer with natural horsemanship techniques after about 30 minutes (Judy would gently and rhythmically tap Miami's rump with a longe whip, lash held in her hand, while I placed firm pressure on the longe line. Each time Miami took a step towards the trailer, Judy would stop tapping and I would release the pressure. Eventually she figured out it was easier to get in the trailer than deal with the annoyance of the tapping and pressure).

Later that same day, Judy and I trailered Lily down to the Equestrian Center. I had originally intended to ride her down, but the morning was chilly, it was windy, and the minute I took her out of her stall to load her, she was prancing and frisky, and not paying attention-she kept trying to turn around, looking for the other mares. I took Lily to the arena (against her will) and longed her for 15 minutes, then went into a series of groundwork exercises, making her back up, yield her hind end, stop, start, and do the old lady walk. By then she was listening, and we loaded her up. I was glad for the decision to trailer; I don't know how it would have gone if I'd ridden Lily to the Equestrian Center.

At the Center, she was her usual quiet, calm self. I tacked up and ended up having an hour lesson with Judy in the red arena. Lily did GREAT! A group of people gathered to watch, and one lady even asked Judy for her information for lessons after watching her instruct me on doing leg yields down the quarter line with Lily at a walk. It was a great session for the three of us! I need to work on myself with leg yields-going to the right, we are fine, but to tshe left, I have a really hard time shifting my weight and pushing with my right leg. I've always been left-handed when riding, even though I'm right handed for everything else. Judy had me holding the reins in my left hand and raising my right hand over my head. When I did that, Lily automatically leg yielded to the left-the position made me shift my weight correctly and my little girl followed. It was fascinating.

The next day we rode down to the Equestrian Center by ourselves and Lily did great-calm and cool like she always is, despite an enormous farmer's marked being held in the field by the arenas.  She was looky, but only really skittish in the barn area. The day after that, I was exhausted, and was originally going to just longe Lily. She was so good after longing her that I wanted to just get on bareback and walk around the arena. But I lack the skills for mounting up bareback, and trying to scramble on Lily's back made her nervous, so I ended up tacking her up for the walk around the arena. After 2 laps I was bored, and then just wanted to go down the street. So I opened the gate and we walked down in the opposite direction from the Equestrian Center. Lily was an angel, looking around curiously as we went.

Urban trail ride!

Heading back, she started walking fast to get back to the barn, so I made her walk on past the barn. But then we passed a pasture with a cow and a bull, and the following had 2 horses, and she started to behave like she'd never seen these 2 pastures before, and tried to balk and back up. With some effort, I pushed her forwards, and we continued until we came to one of the big hunter/jumper barns on the street. All of the horses were turned out in the paddocks across the street, a new sight for her, and this was just too much. She balked, backed up, and refused to go forward. She just wanted to stop and stare at the horses. Then, when I tried to kick her forward, she half-reared twice. I spun her around, brought her to a stop, where she felt like she was going to explode, got off and made her walk at a fast pace next to me. By then I was exasperated with her-this kind of behavior was unlike her, and my exhaustion was giving me a short fuse. I did smack her when she tried to stop and stare again. By God, there are 3 horses back home. Get over it.
 
After passing this barn, we were pretty much at the Equestrian Center, so I got back on and ended up working her in the white arena for 20 minutes or so. She worked beautifully, so I cut the session short and we headed back home. I had figured she would be back to normal heading home, but was wrong. She tried pulling the same crap with the balking and backing up. I leaped off, smacked her on the neck and made her walk forward, growling menacingly every time she tried to turn her head to stare at the horses in the paddocks. If she became too eager walking next to me, I would make her stop and back up on command. By the time we were past the h/j barn, I had her attention again, and got back on. The rest of the ride home was uneventful. In the wash rack, however, she decided that she just had to break one of the cross tie eyehooks, and backed up until she made it snap, before leaping forwards. This was completely and entirely unprovoked, and something she had NEVER done before. I did not understand why she was so out of sorts. My guess was that she is coming into heat, which often makes her act ridiculous like this, and would explain her unusual interest in other horses-she has a gelding deficiency. She spent the night outside in the arena, still by herself. The plan is to put her and Miami out together eventually, but Miami had had a case of green snot, and though she seemed fine (good appetite, bright, active), Judy was keeping her separate for a couple of days to make sure she wasn't comng down with a cold before turning her out with other horses.

Today I slept in and stayed in bed most of the day. The stress from the move, the fact that it happened while recovering from a second throat infection, combined with that time of the month, daylight savings (my body still feels like it is an hour later than it is) and some financial concerns, had all just piled up on me. After serial napping, however, by the afternoon I felt like a new person, and headed out to the barn, where I tacked up Lily with her bridle and surcingle, and longed her for 20 minutes. We did intervals of trot/canter, which she seemed to enjoy. Her trot was lovely and floaty, and she was super responsive to voice commands. Afterwards, I took her for a walk down the street in the fading light to go past the cows and the two horses in the pastures. She stopped to look at the cows because they were right next to the fence. The cows stared back at her. We turned around after passing the two horses, and Lily walked next to me the rest of the way home. She did startle twice at objects only she could see. Sigh. Hopefully by next week the skittishness is over with.

We turned Lily out with Rose, and Little Red went out with Miami, who had not had any more green nasal discharge for the last 24 hours. Lily and Rose have been doing fine by themselves; there was friction only when Little Red was in the mix-Rose would chase Lily off. The second time we had all three together, Rose was better about allowing Lily to be close, but I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of turning the three out unsupervised.

Miami is on a different kind of hay, T&A, which Little Red had been eating up until recently. Judy had suggested turning them out together while Miami got switched over to the timothy we were feeding Rose and Lily. I thought this was a good idea. The girls were all fed their grain in their stalls, Miami and Little Red in adjacent stalls. As soon as they were done, they all waited anxiously to be turned out. Miami started to squeal and kick at the boards between her stall and Red's, which was a first ever for her. There must be a full moon factor in the mares' behavior. Jennifer thought Red and Miami might not get along in turnout, but they are both so easygoing that I had a feeling they'd be fine. Judy agreed, and we turned out to be  right. Once in the arena, they immediately took to each other, sharing their hay. Rose, who became anxious when she saw Little Red led away from her, calmed down as soon as we put Lily out with her. It was a beautiful night, with a clear sky, and the moon was so bright we could see our shadows on the ground while walking to the cars.

The full moon also seems to be bringing out the worst in people as well. After some deliberation, Judy decided to manage our old barn, since the owner was going to shut it down after M's eviction. This has created drama of epic proportions, resulting in the banning of Judy from M's barn as an instructor, and the beginnings of an exodus-Elisabeth, Stanley, Mark and Dianne are all planning on leaving M's new barn to return to the old barn under Judy's management. All of them would be returning due to financial reasons, but we know M will most likely not see it that way. We'll see what happens.

Paddock by the barn, all finished! That's Miami in the background, at the arena gate.

Brand new shade tree in paddock. The new barn owner rocks-he set up the paddock within 3 days, and had this tree planted today.

Lily turned out in the arena. I love that there is shade in both turnouts.