Phantom's tail gets put up over the winter in a casing of Vetrap and covered with duct tape.
This weekend, a nephew of a barnmate saw Phantom in the arena and asked why that horse has a penis tail.
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| Ignore the poopyness. |
Guess I need some new duct tape colours.
Well, it's been another couple of weeks with very little riding. The 23rd winter of the year hit us, with cold temperatures, and a dump of snow (my yard was almost clear of snow, but not now).
Cisco got ridden once this past week. When talking to people before my ride, I had said that I expected it to be a fun ride - as in, hang on, because it's going to get interesting.
I was right. Fresh Cisco meant extra spooky Cisco. Which wasn't helped at all by someone trying to do some repairs on the quad that is used to harrow the arena and is parked in the scary end. Well, not repairs at this point - more like diagnostics that required revving the engine and turning it off and on multi times.
Sucks to be Cisco. I made him deal with it.
He's honestly getting much better about his emotions in the scary end of the arena. He might turn into a llama between K and H, and he might suck back and drop a shoulder if I soften for a millisecond, but he's getting much better about going down there and not actually losing his brain. In the end, we did a bunch of smaller canter circles down there, and if I set him up properly (which meant unlocking his neck before asking for the canter) he gave me some nice moments.
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| Someone keeps having his hood undone when I go out to get him. It ranges from one of the velcro closures being undone, to being unattached from the blanket and spun upside down as in this picture, or completely off and me having to chase down the dog who's got in his mouth, shredding the lining at every stop. It's not just Cisco though - other horses in an unconnected paddock are doing the same thing. |
And then we got a dump of snow, the farrier was out for their trim, there was a clinic on and the arena was closed..... and no more rides for the week.
Thus, it's been quiet on the horse side of things.
The non-horse side of things has been a bit exciting though - I bought a new mobile tack room car!
I had a bunch of problems with my 10-year-old Santa Fe in January that got me looking in a panic at my options should I need to replace it. As much as I've loved driving that SUV, I've been thinking for a few years about finding something that was much better on fuel. My driving had changed since I had bought it and I've always hated having to pay for gas.
I ended up talking with a barnmate about her hybrid car, and was shocked to discover just how good it was on gas. She regularly gets 1000 km on her 43 liter tank of gas. I got 525 km on my 60 liter tank in my SUV, that I had to fill up every 6-7 days. That got me really thinking about my options.
Originally, I was thinking that I would put down a deposit and order one, knowing that with the current inventory issues I wouldn't necessarily be able to just walk into a dealer when I decided that it was time and be able to drive a new car away. I talked with one dealer, who said that it would be at least a 6-month wait, and in fact, I would be put on a waitlist for the waitlist for a 2023 model, as the new models haven't even been announced yet, but the 2022 models were basically sold out.There were only a handful of the current models available around the city.
I also was pondering the expectation that gas prices were going to hit record highs this summer, and that the interest rate would likely go up in March, and decided to just do it now before I got into a situation where I needed to replace my car on short notice and would likely have a hard time getting what I wanted.
So I got me a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq PHEV (plug-in hybrid). And so far I'm loving it!
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| It won't be this clean again for a long while. |
It has a small battery that I can plug into my regular outlets in my garage and it charges up overnight to give me about 47 km of electric range. When it reaches 15% remaining in the battery while driving it switches over to hybrid mode. It will still try its best to run on electric while in hybrid mode, depending on what it deems best (ie. on the highway it will likely be using the ICE (internal combustion engine) but in the city it will probably be using electric).
In the 10 or so days since I picked it up I've driven about 670 km - a little less than typical due to the cold and snow. The range left on my initial tank of gas is still 579 km. That's a minimum of 1300 km from a 43 liter tank of gas - and in the end it will be much better as I charge it every night and get another 47 km of range added every day. I'm hoping for at least 1500 km or about 3 weeks before needing to fuel up, but I suspect it will actually be more like 1700 to 2000 km and closer to 4 weeks - maybe a bit more.
Sadly, I won't be saving the money I'm not spending on gas - it will all be going back into the car payments I now have. But between the gas money and the lessons that I've started teaching again I think I'll get to eat something other than Ramen noodles at least a couple of times a week. The horses better not get any ideas though....
The weather started to change on Friday night last week. Not much that night - the real temperature drop happened on Saturday. It was just enough that a person who was weary from the week and very much over this pending return to yet another winter didn't really want to do anything that would mean getting really cold. Which for me, would be tacking up and riding.
The fact that there was no one around didn't help. I just wasn't in the mood to have a crappy ride just before another week off. But I had a free arena, so I decided to take advantage of it, in the lowest effort on my part possible.
Cisco was popped in the ring first. It was probably a good decision to not ride as he was pretty sassy. We did some work with his mark to get him further down the arena, which worked until I got it past his comfort point around X. I don't know what set him off at that point, but he got a bit frantic and did that loud blow through his nose thing while staring at the end. Interestingly, once I moved the mat closer and got him to stop on it and he got his click/cookie, he settled right down and just walked the short end instead of the frantic trot/canter.
I had bigger plans though. I had dragged out the podium that someone had made a while ago and stored at the end of the ring.
I think I've tried the podium once with Cisco a couple of years ago, and if I recall, it didn't go so well. Also, because I'm a sucker for punishment, I had set the podium up quite close to one of the scary corners of the arena. (Mostly because it was too heavy to roll too far out of the corner where it is stored.)
Once we got the chill walk, we made our way down to the podium. Sure enough, he wiggled his way all around it without actually stepping on it, all the while keeping an eye out for the hiding horse murderers in the corners.
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| Ever alert to potential hazards. |
At one point I stepped up on and across the podium - that seemed to give him the idea that he could put his feet on it and he followed me across. Rather awkwardly though, as the podium is not quite wide enough for the horses to get their front feet and back feet on it at the same time, and the corners are cut off, so if they aren't totally straight, some limb ends up taking a step off the side while the opposite limb is on top.
Once he went over the first time, Cisco figured it out quite quickly. We went straight across a few times (well, not straight, more like drunkenly across), and then I started asking him to halt with just the front feet on. He seemed to start enjoying it, and happily led me to podium upon approach.
The main reason I had dragged the podium out was for Phantom. The last time I rode her I angled her a bit too much towards the lower step of the mounting block, which is what I first used when she first learned to stand on the podium, and she made an attempt to put her foot on it. She's always loved showing this trick off to me, and I wanted to give her something to do that she really liked.
Sure enough, she perked up on the approach to the podium, sniffed it, and immediately put her feet on it. And looked for her cookie.
What she didn't like, was walking across it. She was not impressed with that feeling at all.
She was never bad, or refused to do it though. She just took a bit to figure out to slow down and let me guide her straight.
At the end, I went back to having her stand with just her front feet on the podium. And I got a couple of my favourite ever pictures of her smiling for her cookie.
I need to see if I can Photoshop the background out of these and get them enlarged to put somewhere in my house where I'll see them every morning so that I can start my day with a smile.
This winter has been tough to get any consistent rides in. After we got through the long cold spell of late December/early January, it's been a constant roller coaster of up and down temperatures - it's either above average warm or super freezing cold. Which, for riding, means 2 or 3 rides in one week, a week off, and try to start back with a very fresh horse again.
The other issue that this has caused has been icy ground. Like, everywhere.
Last week's four days of +9 Celsius temperatures got rid of a whole bunch of snow. And also left huge puddles everywhere as the ground is still frozen. And when the temperatures fell over the weekend, accompanied by some very strong wind, those large puddles turned into large, smooth ice rinks.
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| I took my fancy Celeris boots out in the hopes I would get to ride in them on Thursday last week, but when I saw the |
The horses just haven't been moving around a whole lot out in their paddock. I mean, they're standing in a round bale of hay up to their knees, so they really don't have much incentive to walk too far from the buffet, which is conveniently located between their bedroom (shelter) and the wet bar (water trough). A full third of their paddock has had no hoof prints in the snow for weeks.
The lack of movement, (and what little movement there is is likely all at a walk) has meant that horses have been very full of themselves when you try to ride. For Cisco, this means I've been trying to ride a spooky llama.
I also suspect that it has caused some body-soreness in the ponies. Phantom has been stocking up pretty consistently in her hind legs this winter, but it comes down with about 30 minutes of easy activity. Cisco has been a bit resistant to soften in his poll, which seems to be his go-to when he's not feeling his best.
We've been plugging away at things, but not necessarily having the best rides. Not terrible ones either, mind you. It just seems like the first ride is spent trying to get some sense of relaxation, the second ride we are able to get a little bit of something done by the end of the ride, and I might squeak in one more quick ride before another 7-10 days off due to cold/snow and we get to start all over again.
There has been very little of note to my rides.
Well, except two things.
First - have you ever watched any videos of the pros doing Working Equitation, and marveled at the part where the horse, who is almost always a PRE, does a canter sidepass over a pole during the speed event?
Apparently, my horse can do that.
You know the saying "impulsion is created by the spooky end of the arena"? Well, the canter sidepass is apparently created by asking for a canter leg-yield heading into the spooky end of the arena, up the quarter-line, off the outside leg. I was pretty impressed with how quickly Cisco was able to canter sideways, while staying pretty straight. Really wish I had a video of it.
The second thing, was that on my last ride on Tuesday, I put my big girl panties on and cantered into some jumps. They weren't necessarily pretty - I cannot see a distance to save my life and keep second-guessing my decisions, but I did the thing.
We haven't popped over anything since September or October. I had to be quick to get it done between lessons, which meant a rushed warm-up on a horse who was behind my leg, but I didn't have much time to fix that before the next lesson started.
Cisco was a very good boy and happily popped over all the teeny crosspoles without issue.
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| Cisco is modelling his new bridle, while keeping an eye out for the horse murderers hiding behind him. |
Except once - we jumped into a diagonal line that took us into the scariest corner of the arena. This alone is usually cause for Cisco to back off just a wee bit, but on this occasion, his roommate, Lucy, who was warming up for the next lesson, picked up a rather enthusiastic canter out of said corner, which in Cisco's mind meant that Lucy was obviously escaping the horse murderer that lays in wait in the corner, and he yet again showed me his desire to try Working Equitation by cantering sideways away from the second jump in the line. The runout was all about the perceived threat in the corner and not the jump, so we just circled back around to the first jump and started again, this time going straight through and cantering around the corner to the next diagonal line.
Continuing on this winter's pattern, I'll get one or two more rides in before the temperatures plummet again this weekend. Once the weather gets a bit more consistent I would like to take the ponies to a vet that does chiro that I've used in the past, but she's over an hour away and I don't like to trailer on iffy winter roads. In the meantime, we'll just keep plugging along.
During the winter months, it's not uncommon for me to pop the ponies into the arena to have a chance to have a bit of a play. Our weather is erratic, the ground in their paddock can be icy (especially this year), and when I can't ride somewhat consistently it's just easier to give them a day to get the sillies out without me on their back.
Phantom knows the routine and once she gets warmed up, she pretty well keeps herself going. These days I usually have to stop her well before she has used up all her energy.
Cisco has never really gotten into it. Not because he doesn't have an excess of sass though - it's because he walks into the arena, looks into the scary far end, and immediately decides that he doesn't want to risk getting eaten by the land sharks that are lurking in the corners and that he must stay as close to the entrance gate as possible (just in case a quick getaway is needed).
If he comes off the track along the short end of the ring, he only uses about 15 meters of the arena. Tiny circles, usually back to the gate, or back and forth along the short end - if left to his own devices, that's the extent of his free lunging.
This video is from last winter. He's a bit better than normal here, but you can see his desire to get back to the gate.
I suppose that I could chase him around with a bag on a whip and maybe he'll go a whole 20 meters away from the gate. But this is a horse who needs to learn how to relax - he's quite capable of running frantically around in a llama posture. As much as I want him to work through some sillies, he isn't a horse who gets too ridiculous, so really he just needs to move around for a bit and that's enough to make him rideable the next day. I'd prefer to have the arena be a place that he enjoys and is relaxed to be in, and not a place that he associates with stress and frantic running.
So, much like being under saddle, I try to put his brain to work, and have taught him how to go to a mark.
This has worked really well. I'm usually able to slowly move the mark further down the arena, and more often than not, Cisco will continue to seek it out. I can often get him to about 2/3's the way down the approximately 100-meter arena - much better than 15 meters by the gate!
The other thing that this work does is change his posture. Instead of going around like a llama, he is much more relaxed in his frame. I'd rather not strengthen any llama muscles!
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| We do not need to encourage this posture! |
A tarp is the preferred option for a mark, but as I don't always have one handy, I've also used a lead shank on the ground in a circle shape (which is what I am using in this video). I think that the tarp is far more visible - when I move the lead shank down the arena he doesn't seem to find it right away (maybe if I used a clean shank it might help!).
Depending on how worried he is about the scary end he is, we have had some success with clicking for a treat when he gets a little bit braver and goes a little further than normal from the gate. Once he gets the first click he will incrementally go a little further, for which he gets a click and a treat. But this totally depends on the perceived imminence of the land shark invasion. Today, it was quite windy, and the land shark threat was high, so my attempts to get him to be brave with just a click didn't pay off and I had to use a visual mark.
Who knows, maybe this will develop into a film career for Cisco. He takes a great headshot!
The nice thing about my Andalusian /paint cross gelding is that he is inherently quite lazy. He's no TB that has an endless supply of energy and is fit after a week of riding. No sir. He's of the 15 minutes of work generally brings the fresh horse level down from a 7 to a 2. And two rides in a row is pretty guaranteed to mean a pretty chill second ride.
The downside to this is that I tend to have a horse who is either over-responsive and extra sensitive to my legs or very much non-responsive and exhausting to ride. I much prefer a slightly hot reactive ride over a kick ride.
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| This look does not usually mean a quiet ride is forthcoming. |
I did a bunch of work on getting Cisco sharper off of a very soft leg aid last fall when I was managing to ride with some consistency. It was going pretty well. But, then he got his vacation, and, well, we all know how how much we eat on vacation, and what it does to our waistline and desire to exercise once vacation is over.
It hasn't been too bad so far on our return to work - the lack of consistency due to the up and down weather has meant that Cisco has mostly had lots of energy and been spooky enough in the arena that I kind of wanted a lazy ride.
We got those lazy rides over the weekend when he was ridden 3 out of 4 days.
The first one was on Friday night, the day after he lost his brain upon seeing the water truck wheels in the crack under the overhead door in the scary end of the arena. He was completely chill right from the get-go. The ride was short, simple, and we threw in a bit of fun with a couple of attempts at cantering through some bending poles (well, pylons). Much different from the previous ride.
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| Totally unrelated to this post, but this was my prize bag from a 12 Days of Christmas contest that my vet clinic ran. |
He had Saturday off and we tacked up again on Sunday. There were a bunch of horses in the arena, which immediately sets Cisco's chill level to a "having a beer on the porch with my buds" type of chill level.
So we putzed around for a few minutes of trot. He was being pretty good, no spooking or anything. But after about 5 minutes, I was pooped.
Yep, he'd suckered me into working too hard again, and him not working at all.
Cue repetitive transitions again. Walk/trot/walk/trot. I wanted a shouted response from a whispered aid.
And honestly, he gave it to me. Neither of us could maintain it for laps around the ring or anything, but he stepped up to the plate and got the hind end activated. This even applied to the canter - we had a fantastic lengthened canter down the long side each way, and was able to come back to a nice canter on a circle at the end without too much drama. Tracking left his shoulders even stayed in the appropriate alignment!
After the canter?
We found a new gear at trot.
This was my sports car ride of a horse that I like. Powerful, forward, up in front. I completely had to change my position to match what he was offering me.
Of course, we couldn't keep it for very long. And by no means did Cisco magically turn into Valegro. His neck was shorter than I would like and we had lost all semblance of straightness, but hey, you've gotta start somewhere, right? He offered, and I said I'll take whatever you will give me, but had to make sure I didn't get greedy.
Post-ride I gave Cisco a chance to stand on the Sure Foot Pads. He had a good session and really seemed to relax into it.
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| Cisco seldom stands with his ears lower than his withers, so it's a bit of a big deal when relaxes like this while standing on the pads. |
Since then, he's had another week off, as we got a bit of a blizzard that night and it brought some frosty air in with it. This weekend will be nice, but there is a clinic at the barn and I can't use the arena. So I'll be back to the over-reactive horse for my next ride next week!
It's the time of year when finding some incentive to ride has been a problem.
There's been a myriad of reasons - weather (it's either freezing cold or above-average warm but also freezing rain), roads have been terrible this year (I've never seen as many vehicles on their roof in the ditch as I have this year), car problems (very expensive car problems), and well, this week, my uterus remembered that it exists (it forgot for a while).
I had three and a half pretty good rides on Cisco a couple of weeks ago. The half-good ride was because we started one ride in the arena by ourselves for the first time this year, which meant that Cisco was on high alert for anything that might kill him. Like the yellow and black quad parked in the corner, that was most definitely a tiger that was getting ready to pounce - especially once Cisco kicked up some dirt into the boards as we passed it. After I told him how brave he was for passing it, sure enough, a real-live tiger (orange kitty) entered the arena through a hole in the overhead door in the scary end, which in Cisco's little brain, justified all of his concerns.
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| Cisco creeping me from the shelter. |
Thankfully, we are at the stage of training where once a bit of energy has been expelled, his brain slows down and Cisco is able to focus and we can generally have a pretty good second half of the ride. I mean, he still looks for reasons to gtfo and takes a mile if you give an inch in the scary end, but we can get stuff done.
After that ride, the temperatures plummeted so I didn't do anything with him for a week, at which point I decided it would be a good night to do some groundwork.
Because Cisco tends to be worried when in the arena by himself, I like to do groundwork that activates his brain and focuses on finding relaxation. I use a lot of TRT method stuff. If I leave Cisco to his own devices he just does dizzy circles in front of the exit gate and barely uses any of the arena.
It was a really good night to do groundwork. Someone had hauled in and was working on some roping (not on cows though). Keeping Cisco focused and seeking relaxation even though a rope was thwacking into a plastic block was a really good exercise for him, and we had some really good results. Which all went out the window when they left through the back door and loaded onto the unseen, but very much heard, trailer behind the arena.
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| Apparently, holding one's phone up to take a picture also looks like the cue for smiling, which results in a bunch of silly photos. |
This brings us to today's ride. I figured that homeboy would have a bit of excess sass after almost two weeks off, but I had timed it right and there were two other horses in the arena, which usually means I'm in for a chill ride.
I hopped on, Cisco walked about 5 steps, stopped dead, stared into the far end, and grew a hand taller.
The water truck was driving past the end of the arena (outside), and Cisco could see the wheels moving through the 4" gap under the overhead door. Cue instant panic.
He stopped and wouldn't walk forward. This was a different reaction than normal. Usually, he keeps moving and just tries to exit stage left (or right depending on which is the shortest path to the exit gate).
Cue tiny circles.
Cisco's mode of spooking is to lock his neck straight and drop a shoulder to scoot. My way of dealing with it is to take his neck away and bring his head way to the inside and make him follow his nose on a small circle. It also relates to the TRT groundwork patterns. Not being able to lock his neck means that he can't scoot off.
We followed the TRT way of dealing with a horse that doesn't want to go into the spooky corner. Circle left, right, left, then loosish rein to walk forward. He starts thinking about gtfo'ing, back to a few circle, and walk forward again. Rinse and repeat until they have taken you into the scary part. A bit of the right is easy/wrong is hard method.
And it worked. Quite well, actually. There were some sticky moments on the way, and it took probably 7 or 8 minutes, but we made it to the end, and once there, Cisco realized that there were in fact no horse-eating monsters waiting to pounce, and from then on, we were able to to go down there every time without many issues - Cisco kept his guard up, just in case they were hiding.
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| This horse is such a dork. |
Considering how the ride started, I was pretty happy with how it ended. There was one sarcastic canter transition in the scary end, which involved a buck or two, but since I had had an Advil and a Tylenol that morning (thanks to my uterus) I had no back pain and my butt was glued to the saddle so his antics didn't faze me at all. Otherwise, he tried pretty hard to manage his excess energy and gave me some good efforts.
The goal is to get a couple more rides in now that I've ridden the sass down a bit. Next week isn't looking great for riding, between more cold weather arriving, another expensive repair to my car (hopefully the last one for a long while), and a clinic booked for the arena over the weekend, Cisco might get another week off, and we'll be right back to a sassy, spooky pony.
It's actually been a busy horse week!
The cold spell that we've been having (the longest, coldest spell since 1969, with 13 out of 15 consecutive days having daytime highs colder than -20 celsius) finally broke at the beginning of the week. On Monday it actually warmed up almost 10 degrees from when I went home from work in the middle of the afternoon to when I left the barn at around 9:30 that night.
I had gone out a bit later that evening as I figured everyone would be out to ride early. I was right. But I timed it nicely so that when I rode there were only a couple of other horses in the arena.
Cisco was a very good boy for his second ride of the year. I kept the ride pretty short as I didn't want him to get sweaty, but it wasn't a problem because it was much cooler in the arena than it was outside. The only real issue we had was that he kept ignoring my left leg, and as I didn't have my spurs on my new winter boots, I didn't have any back-up. It got better through the ride, but he definitely seemed to pick and choose when he thought it should apply.
Since the weather has warmed up, it was also time to clip. Tuesday night was a good night for it as I had to be up early on Wednesday for work and clipping only takes me 45 minutes or so. Cisco got done, I still need to do Phantom, but I wanted to get my blades sharpened before tackling her polar pony coat.
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| The only pic I took of his clip, which was used to judge how even both side of the clip was. |
Thursday I awoke to a beautiful day.
If you were an arctic duck.
For those of us who aren't arctic ducks, it was yucky. I awoke at 6am to rain, that froze and made driving treacherous. Google maps was a sea of orange and red roads at 8am.
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| Phantom was not amused at the weather. |
Unfortunately, it was farrier morning, so I had to leave the house. Luckily, the other two ladies who share my farrier messaged me that morning and said that they would go first so I got to stay home until 10 am, which allowed the rush hour traffic to die down. The roads were still pretty icy though when I went out - I've never seen as many cars in the ditch along the highway as I have over the last few weeks.
After the ponies got their toenails trimmed, I tacked Cisco up for a ride. The overhead door to the arena is being kept open (still warmer outside than inside) and that was a little exciting for Cisco. There is some kind of magnetic pull that makes him bulge towards it and prevents him from being able to go into the corners in the scary end. Thankfully, I had remembered to put spurs on this time.
He wasn't actually too bad about gravitating to the open door, but if I gave him an excuse to throw his shoulders in that direction, he took it.
I threw one challenge at him (that we should have sorted out long before now, but oh well) and asked him to pick up the outside canter lead down the long sides. We tried this one day outside this past summer, didn't really manage to get the specific lead down the center of the field. But we've been doing a lot of work on the canter transitions, so I was optimistic that there would be improvement.
Tracking right, Cisco got the first attempt wrong, but then nailed the next three. Tracking left was a bit stickier though, and I had to simplify it a bit for him by coming off the rail and angling a back towards it a bit while asking for the canter. It still took a couple of attempts, but once he got the first one he seemed to figure it out.
We'll test it again over the next few rides. One of the things I want to work on this year is counter-canter, so I'd like to make sure that he really understands the aid for canter leads.
I've been really happy with how he's come back from his vacation. The barn owner was riding at the same time as me and commented on how well he's going (she hasn't seen him go in quite a while). I still think that the soundproof ear covers were the turning point last year. I had taken the Pivo out as a last-minute decision to try to catch some of my ride, but it apparently wasn't fully charged since I last used it in the fall and it died about 15 minutes in. Oops.
I don't have much horse content for the rest of the week - with the -30 temperatures, and a car that has decided to go on strike, I don't know if I'll make it out to the barn until the weekend. So, might as well join the blog hop!
Spooky or Steady?
Steady, if they have enough go. If they don't, I'd rather spooky.
Matchy-Matchy or Mismatched?
Matched somewhat? I wouldn't buy the full-on set of stuff, but tend to buy things in certain colors (mostly navy and black) so things kind of go together just based on what I already own. Since I don't often put leg wear on my horses, I only have saddle pads and whatever I wear to coordinate.
Tall Boots or Half-Chaps?
Definitely tall boots. I always wore tall boots when I was younger, but have been wearing paddock boots and half-chaps since I got back into riding and my calves were a bit more, um, athletic than they had been. My custom Celeris boots arrived this summer and I'm loving riding in the tall boots again. My leg just feels so much more secure and anchored in them.
Indoor or Outdoor?
This one is easy - since I live in the land of ice and snow for half a year, an indoor is kind of required if you want to do much riding over the winter. The reality is that I can ride outside for about 4 months of the year - if it hasn't poured rain, the mosquitoes aren't horrendous, the sun isn't too hot, the ground isn't too hard because it hasn't rained, or it's too dark in the evening after work.
Bay or Chestnut?
There's something I've always loved about a blood bay.
Plus, I've already had a chestnut. Haven't had a bay. Need to collect one in every colour!
Hard Shell Boots or Sports Medicine Boots?
Well, if I had to choose one, it would be hard shell boots. They'd probably just sit next to my other hard-shell boots that live in my locker and seldom see a horse leg.
Free board for a year or 20K for a shopping spree?
My board comes to well under 20K a year, so I'd definitely pick the shopping spree. Rambo blankets for everyone!
Long Mane, Short Mane, or Roached Mane?
Short mane. Can't stand long manes (though Phantom's is bordering on feral horse length these days). Despite Cisco's consistent multi-length mane, I refuse to allow that roaching is an option.
Lazy or Hot Horse?
Hot. I'm pretty chill so I can get my horse to copy me. I end up working far too hard on a lazy horse.
Private Barn or Boarding Barn?
I'm happy to pay for services at a boarding barn, especially in this -30 weather, but I prefer a smaller, quieter facility. I've been spoiled and can't stand riding in a busy arena.
Create your dream barn or own your dream horse?
Does this dream barn come with stable boys to clean it for me?
Part of me would love to have my own place to keep my horses at home, but I also know that at the end of the day, I'm lazy, and having horses at home means constant work, and at times, little time to actually ride. So I guess I'll pick my dream horse - he stays clean, is always sound, has great feet and doesn't need shoes, never wrecks his blankets, will jump everything in the jumper ring before heading into the dressage ring for a steady third level test, and stays 11 years old forever.
Roman Nose or Dished Face?
Love me a big schnozz. I haven't met too many dished faces that I've been a fan of.
Ride an Olympic-level horse or take a lesson with an Olympian?
I took a lesson with a former World Champion (Gail Greenough) and still remember some of the feedback to this day. (Within minutes she nailed me for locking my elbows during a turn which meant that my distance disappeared - something no one else has ever told me, and that I continue to have to work on.) Would do it again.
But, just because someone has ridden at the top level, doesn't mean they can teach. I wouldn't want to ride with them just because they are an Olympian, but because they have a good reputation of being able to effectively coach riders of all levels, especially amateurs on average horses.
I'd love to ride an Olympic-level horse, but I doubt I'd be able to get it to trot in a straight line! I'm sure it would be very cool but also a very humbling experience.
Own a miniature horse or donkey?
Yes to both! A whole herd of them, if I could!
Mother Nature played her cruel trick on us in the Canadian prairies this weekend. Friday night was a rather chilly -36 celsius when I was out at the barn, and it slowly (very slowly) warmed up through Saturday afternoon and overnight at hit a temperature of -6 on Sunday. That glorious temperature was at about 10 am though - the wind picked up and the temperature dropped through the afternoon back into the -20's.
That meant that everyone at the barn was out early to get a ride in. For most of us, the first ride in at least a couple of weeks.
That totally worked to my advantage.
When I took Cisco into the arena, there were about 8 other horses in there. Thus, Cisco was super chill for his first ride since late October. In fact, I didn't really have a functional go-button. I mean, I'd rather have brakes than only gas with a horse who could potentially be very fresh, but man, was I tired after the ride!
This year's first ride after his vacation went much better than last year's. The 2021 ride was spent spooking and scooting at every little sound and every time a pigeon flapped somewhere in the arena, and tension that lasted a couple of weeks. This year, no spooks (also no pigeons), and he was very chill the whole ride. I'm sure that the lack of pigeons helped, but I still swear by the soundproof ear bonnet he almost always goes in.
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| I guess he can stay. |
The only goal for the ride was to not have a sweaty horse at the end of it. If we only walked, I would have been good with that. But we managed about 30 minutes and threw in a short canter each direction. I was super happy that his shoulders, which tend to fly out to the right whenever he's had some time off, stayed in the general area that I wanted them, even in the left lead canter that we had been working so hard on in the fall.
So, ride #1 of 2022 is in the books!
However, ride #2 won't happen for a little bit. We're back into the ice age for another week. Things are looking promising for the following week though - I will have to finally clip!
Also - I forgot how chilled I get after I ride in winter. It took me three hours at home to stop shivering, and I just felt crappy. I was starting to worry that the Omicron had found its latest victim, but I feel like this after almost every ride in the winter. Usually, I ride in the evening, and when I get home I'm bundled up under a couple of duvets in bed pretty quickly, but on this day I got home in the middle of the afternoon and had to stay up. This is mostly why I'm a weenie when it comes to the temperature these days - I've got my warm riding clothing sorted out, but haven't yet figured out how to keep the post-ride chill away,
Happy New Year!
I'm a little hungover on this first day of 2022. Not from an excess of alcohol by any means, but from my third Covid vaccination jab that I received yesterday. I woke up at 5 am with chills and achiness in all my problem areas. It's similar to how my body reacted for my first jab, but didn't pack nearly the same punch.
Thus, this first day of the new year is going to be pretty lazy, with plans to head out to the barn later in the day.
I spent my New Year's Eve out at the barn, all by myself (well, with the ponies). This was the first time in almost two months that I didn't have any time constraints and could spend time with the ponies, being silly, working on clicker training tricks, and in the beginning, just standing and hugging Cisco. It was lovely.
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| Phantom is in full-on polar pony mode. |
Unfortunately, it was also fucking freezing. We are in the midst of a cold snap that started before Christmas and looks to be around for at least another week. It was -24 celsius in the city when I left, but my car read -36 when I arrived a half-hour later at the barn. I was hoping to let the ponies into the arena for a run but it was way too cold.
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| Ready to fetch a pony. |
There is supposed to be a 24-hour reprieve from the crazy cold from Saturday night until some time on Sunday. If all goes well, hope to hop on Cisco and go for a quick ride for the first time in over two months. I don't care if we only walk for 20 minutes, I just want to get on!
