Mother Nature and I, we're going to have words if she doesn't get her sh*t together soon. This is outrageous! Spring officially started March 20 but apparently no one informed the SWVA weather gods, because it's still in the 30s/40s then they'll tease us with a super nice day and then fall back down into winter temps again. I'm pulling my hair out over here!
However, today was one of those fleetingly, brilliantly, beautiful days and I'm so glad for it!! The boyfriend and I both had off work yesterday since it was Good Friday and originally I was going to take Boo to Pat's so we could get sales pics of him and a few of her sales horses but she had a scheduling conflict so instead the boyfriend and I took Boo and Reily over to play at Green Hill Park today. One of my friends from the Blue Ridge Eventing Association proved to have superb timing when she called me in the morning to see if I wanted to do any riding so I told her to pack up her guys and meet us over at GHP.
We got some decent sales photos and video of Boo being a good little dressage pony. When we were done I changed his tack to western so we could do some "trail" pics with the boyfriend on him riding around, taking him through the water, etc. They both did great. Boo even trotted a couple times and, bless his heart, the boyfriend didn't ask for it but he kept his cool and brought him back to a walk without issue. I'm glad he's getting more confident because if Boo had have done that the first time he was on him he probably would have gotten freaked out. It's funny how horses have a way of knowing exactly how much their rider can handle
Reily got to go up on the hill and hack around and I was only planning on popping him over a couple little jumps, nothing major. But he had so much energy he was so excited to be out there!! I think I need to start using Boo's jumping bit on him when we go out there because he gets so pumped that he can get a little out of control. It doesn't scare me when he gets like that, but when your power steering goes out on the way to a XC jump it's not good for his training because you run the risk of him learning to run out since he's not concentrating. I try to never use any more bit than I really need, but we both end up pulling so much in the boucher that the snaffle is no longer being forgiving. My friend told me about a great exercise she learned at a Lucinda Greene clinic where you walk them straight up to the base of a good sized log (we're talking a Novice or Training level size jump) and have them jump it from the walk. This really helps them sit back on their haunchs and get their hindend up under themself to push off as there's no momentum to carry them over since you approach at the walk. Reily did NOT understand this question at first but after I got him over it once it clicked. He's super smart like that ;) He fumbled over the first couple of times then really started to approach it with a big confident march and popped right over. I need to get a neck strap for this though because it's such a quick action it's hard to not get left behind! I'm definitely going to practice some more at home but I'm afraid the biggest solid jumps I have at home are barrels and they're only about 2' or 2'3" at best and I know that's not going to be big enough to make him bother to raise up enough to really push from his hindend since it's not big enough to make it any work to try and clear it. Maybe we'll just have to build a log pile out in the field! He was so full of himself that at one point we were cantering away from a jump and he was pulling so hard I just sort of gave him a slack rein then squeezed and clucked and pumped the reins a couple times and pushed him into an all out gallop across the top of the hill. He LOVED that and I loved it and all I could hear was the sound of the wind as we flew across the turf. Now I know why jockeys are so addicted to what they do!! He wasn't even at top speed and I felt like we were flying! When we reached the tree line we pulled up and I walked him back to where my friend and the boyfriend were on the other horses and said to my friend, "If this horse could do a novice level XC round at the pace of Advanced he'd be the happiest horse on the face of the planet!" My friend just sort of chuckled and said, "Celeste, I'm pretty sure that's what he just did!" I thought about walking him all the way to the far end of the hill and them setting him loose again but I didn't want to push our luck. Neither one of us is really back in fit shape yet so we'll save that experience for next time ;)
My friend also brought her daughters horse to GHP and I jumped on him for a few minutes just for fun since I'd heard so much about him recently. He was super cute!! He's small but he moves a lot bigger then his size would suggest and has very comfortable gaits. After we got done playing we packed up and took the boys home for some well deserved rest. Although Reily was none to happy that he'd only been grazing with everyone in the yard for an hour or so when I came out and took him to the cross ties so I could work on his mane. He looked like such a hippy today while we were out and I couldn't take it any longer and the weather was finally nice enough that I could work outside without needing gloves for an extended period of time. Gloves and/or frozen fingers are not conducive to good mane pulling, only conducive to frostbite/cut fingers. So I got about half his mane done tonight and now he looks like a dofus, poor man. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold and rainy but hopefully some time next week I'll be able to finish it!
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