Quiet Sunday

Remember how I said in a previous post that the barn is really quiet and it seems no one is ever around? 4 1/2 hours at the barn on a beautiful Sunday afternoon - the only other people were my dad (to fix something for me) and the owner's parents (trying to fix a window in the arena). Mind you, it is a long weekend, and maybe some horse people actually manage to have a life away from the barn. But I wasn't complaining.

I don't have to feel bad about my mess when I am the only person there. I'm usually not this bad - honest!

Cisco came in for his ground work, and he was much better and quieter than he had been the day before. This was despite the sounds of the tools being used on fixing the window. I tried to chase him around the arena a bit, and since he is a silly young horse, he did nothing. He's such a boring little guy.

Look at that hind leg though!

Phantom knows how to play in the arena though. She was supposed to be ridden, but when I brought her in, I thought that she might be a bit perkier than normal. And she doesn't deal with extra perk under saddle very well. It's usually easier to just let her loose in the arena to de-perk herself.

She has always ridden up - she gets hotter as she goes. She can be quite sane while trotting, but once she has cantered she just wants to go. I've had rides where we just could not walk after we've cantered. She just could not. And she free lunges the same way - slow western pleasure jog warmup, then the trot will get bigger, then it's canter, then stop, then canter, then stop, then a big trot that breaks into a canter, then stop, etc, etc.

Gotta warm up before shenanigans!

The other thing she does when she has excess energy is what I call head bucks. She is a really crappy bucker - she does this weird hind leg towards her ear thing. I see only 5 or 6 of these a year in the spring. But what she does all the time when she is feeling good - as she ends the canter she tucks her chin onto her chest and twists her neck and head around. In a self-imposed rollkur position. (Sorry - rather blurry video, but you get the idea of what she does.)

When she has energy under saddle, she kind of does the same thing. She shortens her neck and tucks her nose in, which results in a short, tight back. Which then pings me straight up out of the saddle. And because I'm bouncing on her back, she tightens her back and shortens her neck even more. Why can't she just buck like a normal horse would? (Another blurry video)

So there are times when letting her loose in just easier and probably smarter to do. Today was one of them.

The rest of the time that I was out there were catching up on a few things I've been meaning to do. I had something icky spill on the top shelf of my tack box that needed to be cleaned up - done. Phantom's tail and hind legs got their weekly cleaning. And I put another patch on Cisco's fly sheet as the bugs seem to be bugging them the last few days. (I will hold off on my review of this blanket until the end of the season - I have a feeling that it won't survive past this summer.)