Canter Haunches-In!

Floaty trot from the other day at liberty! This was a tiny cell pic-I had to uber-crop it to get this image. But there you go! All 4 feet off the ground: she has SUSPENSION! :)

Here are the photos of Lily's feet that I had been meaning to post. These were taken a few days after my more aggressive trim and about 3 weeks after her trim with the farrier (in the first trim I did, which I mentioned in a previous post, about 2 weeks after her trim with the farrier, I had just rounded off the edges of her feet a little bit; you could barely tell I'd done anything). With this trim I did a little more:

Right front. Those toes grow so fast! A week later and they're already longer than this!

Right hind (yep, she was still resting the left hind here-these were taken last week). I put that mustang roll on there, though-I was really happy with that.

Left front

Left front. You can see the little crack I was talking about in my previous post-a result of the flare she gets on the medial portion of this foot. I had completely removed the flare prior to taking this photo.

Left hind.

Left front. Note the lateral heel (on the right of the photo) is more worn down than the medial heel. She's also trying to self-trim, as you can see by the big chip on the lateral wall of this hoof (right side of photo; almost even with my shoe.)

Left hind. Cotton was packed into the crevice; this was prior to treating. You can see why I had missed this problem before-I had just brushed the hell out of this hoof, and you still can't see the crack; it would get this packed in with dirt. Note also the stretched white line-the farrier should have corrected that with his trim, but it was never done. She also has a flare on her lateral quarters on this foot (right side of photo).

Right front. Again, medial heel (right side of photo) more worn than lateral. One thing I will give my farriers: they never over-trimmed her frog in the year that she had front shoes. Her foot will widen more in the back now that she is barefoot, but I was always happy that her heels never became contracted during her time with shoes.

Right hind. I like this foot-look at that huge frog! This is why I wouldn't DREAM of putting back shoes on her! But again there is some white line separation, and the heels here are also uneven.

I could still have done way, way more for her, but I'm afraid. I want to see a professional do it first before I do more.

Today, we lunged some more. Lily moved beautifully today, and I decided I'm just going to keep working her normally-she is completely tolerant of me cleaning her foot now, and her abscess is almost completely healed. We did a nice long slow warmup with walking, trotting, and some work over the trot fan pole (she remembered she's only supposed to trot over it!) to stretch her back.

Tracking UP! Working that engine!

Taking a break and looking pretty. You can kind of see her dapples in this one.

I also set up a cross rail and then a vertical using 2 of the blue water barrels as jump standards, and lunged her over. Here are a few so you can see. She has a nice little bascule but doesn't quite know yet what to do with her legs. We only jumped each one (the crossrail and then the vertical) 3 times in each direction so as not to overstress her tendons.

Dangling her legs over the little crossrail

She really used her back over this one, taking a shorter spot while lifting over the top of her body and really pushing with her hind legs. This is why we do these exercises.

A very nice, relaxed and easy jump over the vertical, about 2'6" high.

Leaping over the little vertical diagonally-I kept setting her up funny in this direction, but she tried her heart out anyway.

Afterwards, I actually stood up the barrels, set up a higher crossrail, which we also did 3 times in each direction, then I made a vertical, with one pole across the top of the barrels. This jump was a good 3', if not higher.

I had Lily jump it twice in each direction. Going to the left, she leaped into the air, but took down the pole, first with her front legs, then with her back legs on the second try. Like I said-she just needs to figure out what to do with her legs! But her jump was very good. At this point Diana arrived, and for once I had a witness!

With Diana in the arena with me, watching, I switched directions and had her circle to the right to approach the jump. She refused 3 times in a row because she was coming in flat, without impulsion. I knew she was also tired-she's not used to jumping, which is why we were only doing a few reps each way, but it's great cross-training for her-dressage tends to make horses tight across their backs, while jumping and work over cavaletti and ground poles helps to stretch and release their back.

On the 4th attempt, she bounded into the air, completely clearing the jump without touching it. I had her do it a second time, just so we'd be even with the 2 jumps in each direction, and this time she clipped the pole again. I had her trot over the poles on the ground between the barrels so she'd finish knowing the poles wouldn't hurt her, and we left it there. She was blowing afterwards, but not exhausted, so I let her walk out for a good 10 minutes while chatting with Diana.

I then took her into the barn, hosed off her legs, front end and hindquarters, and turned the Farmtek fan on her, and she cooled down completely while I tacked her up for a ride. Diana and I were going to go out to the park, but the weather was being temperamental (as you can see by the photos-I saw several rain bands sweep by us) and didn't really want to get drenched again while on the trails. Plus the memory of the fall the other day was still a little too vivid. My elbow is healing up well, and thanks to lots of arnica salve over the last 2 days, my hip is sore only when I get stiff (after sitting down or when I first wake up)-I didn't even bruise! And my neck, which yesterday hurt more than my hip from the whiplash, is actually 90% better today, also thanks to generous applications of arnica.

Diana was relieved that I wanted to stay in the arena, because she didn't really feel like riding after all. So I rode while she did her chores.

Lily and I did one of our usual walk warmups-loose rein, then moving onto more collected work. We practiced the same lateral stuff from as of late for about 15 minutes, then I chose to just ask for a canter-she felt great: relaxed, loose and bendy. We cantered around twice in each direction, then tried lateral work at the trot. We hadn't really done this in awhile with her foot, so she kept breaking the trot to finish the moves at a walk. So on another gut feeling, I had her pick up the canter again. On the left lead, I let her trot into the canter, and then she was there. Right in front of my leg, up and collected. I gathered her up more coming into the corner and instead of letting her fold herself around the corner, I just stayed in the same position, asking for the same bend with Lily's body while allowing her to face the same direction we were going, and Lily tried. She had it for a second, broke into the trot, and I asked her for the canter again. Asked for the bend again, and she responded: BAM! Haunches-in, at the canter! It was only a slight haunches-in (kind of like what a shoulder-fore is to a shoulder-in), not a dramatic one like you would see in upper level dressage competition, but the bend in her body was there. We did a couple of strides of this, then I released her into a walk on a long rein. Circle and change direction, then I gathered her up again. She picked up the right-lead canter from a walk. Canter around the corner, and same thing again-maintain that bend, and she totally and absolutely nailed it, effortlessly. Lots of pats, and I gave her a long walk around the arena in both directions on a loose rein.

After that, we did some shoulder-in at the trot, then I let her zoom around the arena in what I call her medium trot. It's frustrating sometimes not having mirrors in the arena to check ourselves, but from what I saw of our shadow on the wall, we looked good!

Diana stopped by again to check on us and asked how Lily was doing, and I told her fantastically! I was trying to describe the canter haunches-in to her, and she asked if we would be able to repeat it so she could see. I told her we'd try, and explained it was only slight-I could see it and feel it but wasn't sure if it was marked enough to be visible from the side on the ground.

I asked Lily to pick up a right-lead canter (since this direction had been easier), and went straight down the short side, then maintained the bend going down the long side. I was able to push her hind end even more to the inside this time-Diana exclaimed when she saw it. Very, very cool.

After that, we did some more medium trot work for a couple of minutes to let her stretch out, then called it a day. It was an awesome day, indeed!

So this is kinda what we looked like. Courtesy of lonecastle, on YouTube

Dancing Shoes

I arrived at the barn early today to get a short ride on Lily before the farrier came. I didn't want her to get hot, as I wouldn't be able to hose her down well before the farrier-this would've made her feet soft and mushy.

On the way to the barn, I saw the 3 lady peacocks. These gals come all the way from the park, cross the street, and make their way through each of the barns, stopping at ours. It's pretty funny. We've found them hanging out on the feed room roof, in Lily's walkout, and checking out the view from the arena wall. I got a picture of them as I was driving past.

The 3 lady peacocks. Pardon the crappy picture-I took it with my phone; forgot the camera today.

She sometimes shakes her head when we ride in the park or the field-sometimes because of flies and sometimes because her forelock blowing back in the wind tickles her ears! The other day I was at our local tack shop with Judy, and they had just brought in the cutest ear bonnets, with the microfiber ears and double piping. Judy found a black one with gray and white piping that matched Lily's black saddle pad perfectly! I finally remembered to bring it to the barn today, and tried it on her. Despite being "full" size, it fit her as if it had been custom-made for her. Very cute. :)

Another crappy phone pic, but you can see how she looks like a jumper with her ear bonnet on!

Borrowing an idea from Stacy from when she was training Klein to jump and my copy of 101 Jumping Exercises, I set up this with the cavaletti:

The cavaletti are set in a star pattern for working on circles. I used a lunge line to measure the circle-each cavaletto's outer x was set to be even with the far end of the lunge line. This ended up being very, very useful today!

We warmed up as usual w/t/c, and she was as bendy and soft as she's been for the last 2 weeks going to the right. She's starting to carry herself more and more in a frame in this direction. We changed directions and went to the left. Again that stiffness. I decided that today we would work through it, we would figure it out. Shoulder-fore was met with resistance, so I pushed her into a canter. She was lovely at the canter, and we went a couple of times around the arena to get her to loosen up. Then back to the trot, and I brought out the bag of tricks to see what would help her get that bend. Shoulder-fore after canter? Nope. Counter-bend on a circle? Nope. Half-halts with the inside rein on a circle? This helped. We did large circles, and she started to drop her head and lift her back a couple of strides at a time. Judy always wants me to pat her with the inside hand but when I do this, she loses the bend. I do turn her body with a firm inside leg at the girth and pushing her body around my inside leg with the outside calf, but she is just learning and still needs that inside rein to maintain the circle. So I rewarded her the natural horsemanship way-I released the pressure on the inside rein each time she dropped her head. This worked really well!! We were circling around the cavaletti star at this point, so I asked her to spiral in to the cavaletti so we were going over the poles. She had to drop her head to look at them the first time around, and then she understood-it was a lot easier for her overall to engage her hind end and lift her back while going over the poles. We circled over them several times, then spiraled out to circle around them again. She maintained the bend, and continued to engage for several strides with half halts and release. We had been working for 25 minutes at this point, and we stopped. Lily had done an excellent job, and I wasn't going to drill her; we ended on a very good note! I sprayed down her shoulders and rump, and took her out for a walk in the field.

We looked at scary things in the field. This is one of the old cross country jumps someone had set up and never maintained. Note the deep hoof prints in the sand before and after this "jump"-they almost look like burrows, they are so deep! I, personally, wouldn't be jumping any horse over this with footing like that. Lily used to be terrified of this one (I guess it looked like a panther crouching in the grass) but today she didn't even look at it; you can tell by the angle of her neck in the photo.

Back at the barn, it was still about half an hour early for the farrier. I got to work on Lily's ears. She won't let me clip, trim or shave them, though she will let me touch them without a problem. So we worked on this, using one of those little mini horse shavers. At first, Lily was extremely reactive, and I couldn't figure out if it was towards the sound of the shaver as it took off her ear hair, the sensation, or both. I took out an old pair of horsey ear plugs I own, and inserted them in her ears (she was fine with me doing this). Back to shaving. Still reactive, but she settled down quickly, and ended up pressing her head to my chest while I finished shaving the inside of her left ear. :) The right ear was a little harder, but I persisted until she relaxed and let me finish. She received a lot of treats to help embed the idea that ear trimming is not a bad thing. Afterwards, I cleaned out her ears with baby wipes. They were very dirty, and it was evident without the hair. I don't think anyone had ever done this before. She was fine with this too. The ear plugs were removed after everything was done.

Around this time, the farrier arrived. After looking at her feet, he determined that the "little foot" is actually the correct foot, and the flared foot is the one that is cause for concern. (I had been concerned about that flare for awhile now, too). Shoes would be the best way to keep this from getting worse given the footing and weather of Florida-it is hard for them to have consistently solid feet when it rains buckets every day 7 months out of the year. She has been 3 months barefoot, and though she is not tender-footed anymore, she is still wearing her feet down to nubs despite daily applications of Venice turpentine to her soles. He evened out her feet considerably and placed front shoes only. Just walking Lily back to her stall I could already tell that she feels more comfortable.

Almost even! My farrier does a beautiful job. Dianne said Lily now has her dancing shoes on.

Afterwards, I locked her out in her walkout while I finished picking her stall. She has a nice big walkout but will still urinate inside the stall as soon as I put her back in. I have seen her go straight outside to the walkout, then turn around and come indoors to pee! (I guess this is better than urinating on the crossties...Christa loves to do that...) So I put her out and kept her out until she urinated outside. I let her in as soon as I saw the puddle behind her back feet. She was so cute, though-she stood at the stall chain, staring in, looking all confused.

"Can I come in already?"

I love her!

Earth, wind and fire

This morning I stepped outside to go to the barn, took a deep breath, and smiled: it was NOT muggy and humid. You could actually breathe! And it was kind of cool outside, too! (Note: "cool" in South FL = 89 degrees and under. Don't get too excited. *lol*)

The day was beautiful out, not even a cloud in the sky, with that blue light that seems to come with fall. Looking out the sliding glass doors to the patio, it looked like it should be cold outside. Not quite, but there's hope now! It was a perfect day for trail riding, but I had decided that I really, really want to take Lily to a dressage show at the end of October, so I wanted to work a little on our arena skills.

It was a fairly long ride, but it was what I call a "proper" ride, with a long warm-up and a long cool-down. I find that, in general, horses do need at least 10 minutes of walking, first free walking and then a collected forward walk with circles and bending, to BEGIN to warm up properly. I like to follow this with a forward trot on a loose rein in both directions around the arena, then doing large circles on a loose rein at the trot, and THEN we really get to work. We did a trot set of 10 minutes, with 20 meter circles, serpentines, and changes of direction across the diagonal. Lily was a bit stiff still but relaxed, willing and paying attention-her head was swinging gently at the trot the way it does when she is happy. I have to get video-I find this adorable! She is great with straight lines, but her diagonal lines suck-she doesn't quite understand, and will try to circle or cut across the arena and go straight. Lots of leg to keep her straight in a diagonal line. Today was better than she's ever been. I then had her walk on a loose rein for a few minutes, walked over to the hose (I had hung the nozzle over the fence) and hosed her down while still on her. She loves this little routine and will stand stock-still while I hose her down from above. I then walked her a little more and prepared to canter.

The first few times cantering Lily, when she first arrived, she would sometimes have little crowhopping fits when I asked her to canter. I figured out that this was my own fault because I was asking her to canter with really strong aids; I think it reminded her of the cowboy. It would scare me, though, because she will put her head forward, her withers come up, and she hops several steps, all 4 feet coming off the ground. It is super cute to watch from the ground (she does it when I haven't longed her in awhile or doesn't agree with what  I'm asking her to do) but not so much fun to ride when you realize how much air she's getting between her hooves and the ground!! It's one of those things where you laugh after the fact, not during. Have you heard the song "Bumpy Ride" by Mohombi and Pitbull?

I wanna boom bang bang with your body yo
Were gonna rough it up before we take it slow
Girl lemme rock you rock you like a rodeo
(Its gonna be a bumpy ride)

Yeah. Well that song first came out when Lily arrived at the barn. For awhile I thought her show name would have to be Bumpy Ride. We worked through the bucking and she was cantering beautifully, but then my horse at the time fell with me on him and broke one of my big toes (my foot got caught underneath him), and I couldn't ride for a month. The first time back to riding, I asked her to canter and she crowhopped. I saw stars-I must've clenched the toe or something, because it hurt like crazy afterwards. We didn't canter again for awhile after that.

Well, today I asked her to canter, "Lily, UP", and she immediately picked up the canter on the correct lead like a good girl. I canter her in 2-point to stay off of her back, and she seems to really enjoy that. This time, however, she kept breaking to a trot as we circled around. I was squeezing her forward and she was still coming down from the canter. I brought her to a walk and regrouped. Her ears were tense, and I realized that I was tense too-I was expecting her to be naughty, and she was saying, "You don't really want me to canter, so I'll just trot for you." I patted her on the neck for taking care of me, "let go" (this involves a change of mental state-you relax your mind and the body follows), and asked her to canter again. She picked up the correct lead right off the bat again, and did not break the canter this time. I had not changed anything I was doing, except I stopped expecting her to be bad. She snorted happily with each stride, and I smiled from ear to ear. I love my mare.

We walked, changed directions, and did it again to the other side. We were doing circles at the canter, 40-meter circles taking up half the arena, something which is new to her. She handled it beautifully. It was one of those times when riding is effortless-my hands followed the movement of her head, and she turned smoothly in response to the guidance of the reins. Smooth as glass. Her circles were still more egg-shaped than round, especially when going to the right (her weaker side), but she did excellent considering this was the first time we worked on circles at a canter. After this, I hosed her off again and we went back to working at a trot for another 10 minutes. NOW she was ready to really work-her entire back and neck relaxed, and she started to drop her head for a couple of strides at a time, reaching for the bit. I was working correctly, too-having been a jumper rider for so, so many years, I have a bad habit of riding with my upper body tilted forward. This looks pretty silly when you're in a dressage saddle. I worked on keeping my body straight, and using my abs to create impulsion for Lily. (Thank you, Judy, for teaching me this!) It worked. Lily was going around in 20 meter circles, soft and truly relaxed, almost on the bit. Her trot becomes swingy when she uses her body correctly; it's wonderful to ride. After that, I walked her for a bit in the arena, hosed her down again, and took her down to the field at a walk to finish cooling off. She was back to her normal self, not skittish. Coming back, she went into a power walk as we got close to the barn entrance, so I made her continue. She turned her head a couple of times as if saying, "But Mo-om! We were supposed to go back that way!" I laughed and made her continue walking. And then we reached the Deadly Orange Sand in the Middle of the Road. There was a large patch of bright orange sand right on the line dividing the lanes on the street. Lily came to an abrupt stop in front of it and tried to turn around. "No Lily, it won't eat you, and you're not going to fall in it." I had her stand and look at it. She dropped her head to study it closer, and gave a big snort. She brought her head back up and just stood looking into the distance. I had her try to walk over it. She danced around the sand giving it the one-ear-one-eye look (no cars coming-I was checking. This road is a dead-end country road-only horse people or the landscaping workers drive down here; everyone knows to drive slowly. If a car had been coming, we would've moved, of course) and I got her to step on it one time wiht a hind foot. I gave her a big pat on the neck and made her stand in front of it again. Then I tried to get her to cross in a straight line over it. She dropped her head and I saw her nuzzling the sand with her upper lip! This cracked me up, but after that, she did walk over it, stepping in the sand.

Then we proceeded to study the trash on the side of the road (somebody moved out of the employee apartment at another of the barns, and there was a bunch of old furniture in front of their property). I was tickled pink when Lily walked herself over to the trash to take a closer look. I like confident horses. :) She tried to convince me she that since she had passed the trash test, we should turn around and go back home. That's when I saw the rubber mat. Someone had tossed a stall mat next to the furniture. I made a note to let the barn manager know-we can always use another mat!  I made Lily continue on down the road a bit before returning to our barn.

Back at the barn, I gave her a liniment bath and set her loose to graze. I work tomorrow and Saturday, so she gets 2 days off in a row.

She's really starting to look good; her shoulders and hips are filling out

She's also just starting to get a topline, too



Time to just be a horse :)

Diane arrived at the barn around that time and we were talking about my ride. I mentioned the rubber mat, and her eyes lit up. "Really? I need another mat!" So we went to get it in my truck. It was interesting trying to roll it up and lift it onto the truck, as those mats weigh a good 80 lbs minimum and are cumbersome, but we did it. At the barn, we unloaded it into Diane and Mark's tack area; she'd get it in Pink's stall during the weekend. We were laughing about the things we crazy horse people are willing to do to save money. Those mats are $50 a pop at the feed store!

Leaving the barn, it was still a gorgeous day.

Except for this. Maybe smoke? Not normal rain clouds-they had a yellow/orange hue that you can't really see in this photo. They seemed to be coming from the Everglades. Another thing they don't tell you about South Florida-when it doesn't rain in the summer, there are often fires. It gets so freaking hot that any little piece of glass or aluminum in the grass can ignite.



2 hours later, when I left the house with Charles, that cloud was over us. It was strange. It turned the light yellow, and looked like smoke, but it did not smell like anything was burning, like it usually does when there is a fire in the area. 3 or 4 years ago we had a drought during the summer (hard to believe but true!) to the point where water restrictions were being enforced. There was  HUUUGE fire in the Everglades that lasted a good 2 weeks (the whole swamp was dry-firefighters couldn't control it; it kept spreading)-we could smell the burning grass at our apartment at the time, despite the fire being way out in the middle of nowhere. On some days you'd walk out of the house to discover your car covered in a very fine layer of ash.  

Charles and I went to Lowe's to buy wood and PVC pipes for making jumps. The barn manager gave me the money for it when I proposed the idea. We have several people interested in jumping at the barn, but no real jumps, just 4 cavaletti. This was kind of an adventure for us. Charles kept questioning me on the total amount it was adding up to, and wouldn't believe me when I kept telling him that we were still under $100 budget. I do suck at math, which is why I'm a vet tech and not a vet, but I actually did it so that we were under the budget-Charles only believed me when he saw the numbers at the register. We loaded up the truck with all the wood and PVC pipes, then realized we would need a red flag to mark the pipes, as they stuck out a good 2 feet out the back of the truck. We both briefly considered not bothering with the flag (neither one of us voiced the thought at the time, however), as we were close to the barn, but I made us go back inside to ask if they had these markers. The girl at the register told us to check the gardening center. There was no one at the register, but  there was an unmarked box full of scraps of red plastic bag on the floor by the exit. I was supposed to be back at the barn by 4:30 and was already running late; we were in a hurry. We took 3 scraps, and looked around, but no one was around to ask, so we kind of shrugged and walked out. Some employees were working outside the garden center; we walked past them and no one said anything about the plastic scraps, so I guess they really were free. Carlos was teasing me, calling me a klepto (I'm pretty straight-edge about stuff, to the point where I'll correct a cashier if I'm undercharged for something. I actually went up to professors in school and pointed out if a wrong question had been marked as correct. Yeah, my species is in danger of extinction, I know.)

The scraps of red plastic were tied to the pipes, and of course, 2 lights down, we noticed there was a police car behind us. We started laughing-this was when we realized we had both considered at the same time, not bothering with the stupid marker. We sooo would've gotten a ticket! Thank God.

We unloaded the wood and PVC at the barn, and Charles went grocery shopping while I stayed to longe Bella. (Isn't my husband awsome?? The BEST horse husband, I tell you :) ) A lady named Sally was coming out to try out horses to lease. She was a Grand Prix jumper rider in England when she was young. Sally used to own a Saddlebred named Rebel. She purchased Rebel on the internet, based on a video, without going out to see the horse in person. The horse she was sent was a different horse from the one she had seen online and bought. She paid for a 6 year old Standardbred, and she got a 3 year old Saddlebred that she couldn't ride-he was very high-strung and nervous, and she was injured badly in a fall that destroyed her confidence as a rider. She was able to sell him, and was just now, 9 months later, trying to get back into riding.

Bella was great on the longe-calm, a little lazy, not spooking at the dreaded wall. I worked her for 10 minutes and put her back in her stall when I saw that she was going to be good. As it turned out, she did GREAT with Sally! I gave her tips on how to get her going. Bella tossed her head when asked to canter. "Don't give up!" I yelled, "Keep trying and she'll get it!" Sally didn't let herself get intimidated by Bella's antics, and she gave her another kick. Bella tossed her head hard, and broke into her happy little canter. Sally was very impressed with her, and got off later to lead her grandchildren around the arena on the pony. They wanted lessons, but I told my barn manager again that though I would like to give lessons, I am terrified of being sued if something happens to a child while riding under my instruction. I can't afford my own liability insurance-I checked and it is VERY expensive. The barn manager's insurance can get suspended if they hear about an uninsured independent trainer teaching on her property. She understood, to my relief, and was just as happy at the thought that Bella might finally get leased. She needs a person to ride her and enjoy her. She's a fun pony and she's starved for attention. I'm crossing my fingers until the lease agreement gets signed!

At the barn, everyone was talking about the big orange cloud. As it turns out, it WAS a brush fire. Read about it here.

Barn Sunday

I hate South Florida summers. You will hear this a lot. It is the #1 reason why I keep pushing for us to move further north. It doesn't have to be outside of the state, just a couple hours north. Today was typical. 95 degrees, with a heat index of 105. Humidity at 62% (actually lower than it felt). The husband and I used to live in Tampa, and yes, it would get hot, but not like this.
I was at the barn at 9:00 am and already it felt like you were breathing through water, it was so hot and humid. On Monday we had taken the horses down to Wolf Lake, a Davie park with a lake set up specifically so you can take horses swimming. It was Lily's first time being trailered anywhere with me, and she handled it SO WELL! She behaved like a long-time trail horse, going right into the water. She did not like the bait fish nibbling at her belly hairs, and had a small bucking fit in the water over that. lol But she stopped as soon as I yelled "Whoa!" She learned that tickling did not equal hurting, and after the one time, she did not buck again, and by the end of our outing, she had learned to enjoy being in the water, staying in, one hind leg cocked, until I asked her to come back out again.

Her first water adventure!

It was a long day though, and we also spent a long time on the trails, so she received a nice liniment bath once back home and had 3 days off in a row. I longed her on Friday but she had Saturday off again (I work from 6am to 7pm, and was exhausted after work), so I wanted to longe her a few minutes before getting on to head out on the trails. It was way too hot and humid for "real" work. I hosed her down prior to her workout, to keep her cooler. We did w/t/c as a warm-up, then I attached the side reins for more w/t/c. She was beautiful on the longe with the side reins, the best she's been so far (of course I didn't have the camera on me!). Judy has me working on getting her to relax her entire topline under saddle-she has a tendency to go hollow-backed after her bad experience with the cowboy, but is learning to relax sooner and sooner with each workout. She's just starting to learn to relax on her own with the side reins. She was cute-when she's relaxed, her head swings a little to each side with each stride, and she nods with the beat of her canter. It was so humid that even after 15 minutes of working, the water had not dried off from her shoulders and rump. I hosed her down again, squeegeeing the water from her shoulders with my hand as I continued hosing her, until the water was running cold between my hand and her skin. She's such a good girl she just stood there, no restraint, without even trying to eat grass or dance away from the hose. Mark had just started tacking up Beau, his bright bay Quarter horse gelding, so I got on Lily to do a little arena work.
  

Pretty girl!!

 

Baby face



We trotted, doing large circles, until she was extending her trot and relaxing her back and neck. I really want to take her to a dressage schooling show later this fall when it gets cooler! Mark walked out with Beau as I was hosing Lily down again. We rode out. Beau led the way; Lily hadn't been outside of the barn area in over a week and she always gets a little hesitant to leave when she hasn't been out in a while.

Mark & Beau

Beau jumped at a branch cracking in one of the trees as soon as we turned down the street, so Lily led the way down to the park. The baby pro trail horse! A lot of things had changed on the street since the last time Lily had gone out-a guy on the street had torn down his 4 stalls and was working on getting all the wood out, there was a pile of garbage by the hedge lining another property, and lessons going on in the arena outside one of the barns. Lily had to stop and look at everything. I urged her on each time, because if I let her decide, she'll say, "I'm not too sure about this" and will quietly try to sneak back home. I didn't want to be circling her all the way down the street. Since Beau was a little more uppity than usual (he normally plods his way down the street), I took the back way into the park, down the powerlines. Beau relaxed, and walked along next to Lily while Mark and I talked.
This park is one of the only ones in Broward County with a public riding stable. They give guided trail rides on the weekends. One of our barn buddies, Dianne, who also owns Pink Slip, the barn goddess (she is a TB ex-racer, and one of my faves in the barn after Lily!), works at the park on the weekends. Our goal for today was to go to the park barn to say hi. It was too hot to do much more, but long walks are still a great way of keeping horses fit. It's so hard to keep a horse fit in South FL summers! My previous horse had stopped sweating when it started raining every afternoon back in late May-high humidity is a big risk factor for anhydrosis. Lily is hypohydrotic, but with temperatures now 5 degrees cooler (believe it or not!!) and hosing her off prior to a workout, she will be sweating nicely by the end of a session without panting like a dog.
We rode down to the barn. There is a side road that leads to it. The first time we took that route, there was a storm coming, and I was tense thinking where we would take cover if we got hit by the rain. I hate riding in the rain. I wear glasses, and when they get wet, I can't see with them on. Everything is a giant blur without them on, so taking them off when it's raining is out of the question. Lily must have sensed how tense I was, because she was jumping at everything on that route that time, very unlike her. We did get hit by rain, and we took cover under a nearby parking area for the park trucks, and afterwards she was fine. But I chose to head out this way again this time to test her, and see how she would handle it. There are palms all over the park, and their leaves fall all over the place. Most horses think they are giant horse-eating octopi lying in wait for an unwary hoof. Lily is funny about them-she'll completely ignore them if they are on a route she's familiar with, but if I take her down a new route and there's a palm leaf on the ground anywhere, she'll turn her head to look at it sideways (she cocks an ear at it and looks at it with one eye-it cracks me up when she does that), and she'll kind of dance away from it like she's never seen a palm frond before. It had stormed last night so one side of the road was strewn with them:

I made her walk right down the center, and step on all the leaves. She didn't give a hoot. :) She did do the cocked ear & one-eyed glance act at a large puddle next to the palm trees, so I made her walk into it. She liked that once she realized what it was, and her ears went up as she splashed through the water. Silly mare.
We made it to the barn and I texted Dianne to let her know we had arrived. There was a lot of people in the barn area in general, and people walked past us warily, trying to stay away from the horses' hind ends. Lily looked at everyone and everything and didn't budge.

Watching the people on the pony rides, on the other side of the barn

We hung out for awhile with Dianne, talking, then headed back home. We cut through one of the paths between the horse fields, and into one of the trails to get some shade before heading back out onto the powerlines. I've only recently started to take Lily onto the actual trails. The first 2 times she would get a little claustrophobic and would start looking into the bushes, searching for some unseen tiger hiding in the trees. She led the way this time, no hesitation.

The powerlines. Awesome fun to gallop down them!! The footing is always smooth and fast. Haven't done it with Lily yet, but yes with Pink, the ex-racer :)

The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We bathed the horses and turned them out in the parking lot to graze (turnout space at our barn is limited to the arena and a large side paddock, so of course there is no grass in the official turnouts). Lily always enjoys this.

I cleaned her stall, soaked her beet pulp, tossed 2 pads of hay in her stall, and brought her in for her lunch.

That afternoon, I decided to work with Bella. It was the first sunny afternoon in at least 2 weeks. I have been trying to work with Bella even longer than that, but could never accomodate her either because of bad weather or because I was at work.

Bella is the cutest pony. She is a double-registered Arabian/Welsh pony cross, the perfect mix of the 2 breeds. The barn manager bought her as a lesson pony from a lady that was selling her in Orlando at a big hunter/jumper show barn. Bella had a different opinion as to what her purpose would be when she arrived at our barn.

Despite her beauty and excellent ground manners, under saddle she can get quite testy. Nothing to scare an experienced rider, but enough to terrify a beginner/intermediate rider. She can get spooky if you're nervous, and if she's in a bratty mood she'll refuse to go faster than a walk, or will simply refuse to go altogether! If you insist, she will probably toss her head and try to pop up. You have to spin her around once as soon as she tosses her head, and send her straight into a trot. She usually won't test you again after that, and will be a perfect pony for you. Good luck explaining this to a beginner. I had an intermediate student that was infatuated with Bella. Bella would give her hell each lesson. I'd have to give orders and smack a crop against my leg to get her going. Basically, the kid wasn't making Bella move-it was me with voice commands. The girl still had fun jumping her, because Bella LOOOOVES to jump, but it sucked for me knowing that this girl wasn't really controlling the mare on the flat. Oh well. Bella hurt her shoulder one night in the turnout and was lame for a month, and in the meantime I had this student ride Pink Slip, with whom she had a blast. They were a good match. But I ramble-back to Bella.

About a month after she arrived at the barn, we took her to one of the small local shows. I didn't realize it was a hunters only show until a week before the event, when I had to scramble to get a cheap hunt coat and show shirt. Then I had to review the hunters rules. I have always competed in jumpers, and in Puerto Rico the hunters division didn't even exist-we just had equitation over fences, which I guess is similar enough. I hated equitation-too subjective, and that whole thing of counting strides was so difficult at the time. I was 14.

Counting strides between fences now was easy, so I figured we could do it without making total fools of ourselves. All we wanted to see was how well Bella would behave at a show, so we could use her for the kids. My one concern was that all we had at the barn to jump were 4 cavaletti. I would stack them up to make two 1.5' jumps, but I knew that the smallest jumps at the show would be 2'. Bella was so confident over fences that I figured she must've jumped at least 2'6" regularly, but it felt weird going into a show not knowing for sure. And without a trainer!! I had never shown a horse all by myself.

Bella in perfect form at the horse show

As it turned out, we had a great time at the show. Bella was awesome, and we won grand champions in the 2' adult division...against ourselves! There were no other competitors! Even the judges joked about it over the loudspeakers.

Bella,Grand Champion

After that, I started the new job, and then Bella injured her shoulder, and it's pretty much been 4 months since the pony hasn't been used regularly. I always feel bad, because she's a good pony, she just needs a firm confident rider.

About 6 weeks ago, I started working her on the longe to get her used to having a job again, and she was SUCH a BRAT!  She had gotten into the most annoying habit of divebombing (also known as yanking your arm out by plunging her head down suddently to eat grass), and of course I had the brilliant idea, the first time out, to longe her in the front pasture by the street. She would NOT go, and was completely disrespectful, refusing to obey commands and trying to eat grass like she hasn't eaten in a month (she's fat, too, btw). Until the longe whip came out. That got her going, and she had a good workout. By the end of the session, she was bright, perky, relaxed and enjoying having a job again.

After that, she had a dose of discipline every day I was off from work. And then my work schedule changed again, I had less time, and then it started raining every afternoon. So no consistent work for Bella for 3 weeks. Today I tacked her up and longed her for about 10 minutes prior to riding her. She doesn't go into the arena except when she's ridden, and if she hasn't been ridden for awhile, she will be a little spooky. Today was no different-we warmed up in the center of the arena with walk and trot, but as soon as I moved her close to the arena wall, she would randomly bolt & take off at a gallop, continuing the circle. I worked her in both directions until she was calmly trotting by the wall. Then I got on. By then, pretty much everyone in the barn had tacked up and had walked into the arena, a highly unusual event-it is very rare when those of us who ride are able to ride at the same time. There were 4 of us in the arena at once, this hadn't happened since the Christmas holiays! It was fun-Dianne was on Pink Slip, Matilda was on Big Boy, Elisabeth was riding Crissy, and myself on Bella. Bella had a couple of hissy fits, but we know each other and she knows she can't get away with stuff when I'm riding her, so she would always keep on working as soon as I put her in her place. We had fun-w/t/c, and then Elisabeth and I started riding around the arena like a pair, trying to keep Crissy & Bella next to each other at the trot & canter. While doing this, a couple showed up at the arena entrance, and I heard the barn manager telling them about Bella. As it turns out, those people wanted to lease a horse and a pony, and were so impressed by Bella under saddle, that they paid for her lease right on the spot! Of course, when I asked the barn manager later, they were leasing the pony for their 13-year-old daughter. Who's a beginner. And who gets to give her lessons? Oh! That would be me.

Here we go...

At least it was a productive day! :)