Sunday 17 April 2011

Sleepy Sundays

First things first, before i go into my spiel describing our thankfully unexciting week I just have to share 2 pics of the greeting i got when i got to the barn this morning.

And she was not one bit bothered by me making faces at her, she was quite happy to stay where she was and had no intention of getting up to say hello!
One Chilled Chick! *nod*

The "Leave me alone - I'm not getting up face" was out:

Now for a bit about what we got up to this week... Flight was late getting back on Monday so i didn't make it to the barn, and thankfully the friend who had been looking after her for the weekend noticed my absence and left out her homeopathic stuff for them to add to her feed the following morning, so thankfully she didn't miss a dose - Win! Got up to visit her myself on tuesday evening and managed to catch up with the friend who rode her for my while i was away and she said they had had no problems. That she had even ridden her in the outdoor on both days and was happy with her. I had been slightly afraid to find out how she'd behaved with me gone as the last time i'd left the RI's riding her she did so much messing that she dumped one of them and attempted to dump the other! I didn't ride her myself on tuesday so just put her in the walker and did her box etc. As it happens the saddle fitter who sold me the saddle was there on tuesday evening so i asked him to have a look and see that it still fit her correctly as she is after filling out and muscling up an unreal amount with her new work schedule. He checked it and said it still fits fine, i'm not so sure so will be going for a second opinion and another osteo visit as the saddle said she has two issues which could be contributing to some of the misbehaving, so will get her checked out again. It's no harm to get the osteo back to her as it was early december when she was last seen - and although she has had a good bit of massage work and is now on the homeopathic train, best to get everything checked once more.
Wednesday we lunged in the pessoa, she went really well. I have started varying the lungeing slightly in that i now use the whole arena to lunge her, we move up and down the arena as she turns around me at different speeds. We also increase and decrease the sizes of our circles to keep the brain ticking over all the time! No excuses or concentration lapses allowed, gotta keep her busy, ;)
Thursday saw my return to the saddle with some arena work in "our arena", my sister came back the day before and wanted to come see her, she was playing with my phone as i rode and took some pics - but i ended up deleting most of them as they were unflattering to myself and K, hahaha. I did keep one that was taken at the end just after i'd dismounted, was the only on worth saving (sorry if it's a bit hard to see in this size - not very exciting in any case, hahaha):



She wasn't as well behaved as she was a few weeks ago, but we can't all have great days everyday. She wasn't bad either and did everything i asked without fussing, so all in all i was very happy with her. She satayed calm and concentrated on what was being asked of her.
Friday then was a day off for her so i put her in the walker while i tidied up her stable as she's annoying when left tied up as she spends her time stamping her feet like a petulant child, so rather than wreck my head she goes into the walker for the 15-20mins it takes me to shake back up her bedding which she insists every day on pushing to the back of her stable, refilling her water trough (it is automatic but i like to just fill it - i guess to check it is working), giving her some hay too keep her quiet till bed time and setting up the little bit of garlic cubes she gets in the evening with an apple and her homeopathic juice on top mmmm, yum right?! ;)
So once her stable was ready went to rescue her from the walker and myself and another lady went up the back and let our horses graze as the sun set, not a bad way to spend my friday evening, :-D
Saturday was another arena day, i decided to put down 10 trotting poles to do something a little different, 5 and 5 not 10 in one line... By the time I had her tacked up another person was just starting work in the arena i was going to use, and she ended up using the poles aswell, so i didn't feel like i was inhibiting her, *blush* Took K a little time to settle and start listening as the other horse had started a little ahead of us and was trotting and cantering before we were ready so K was happy to try and mess a bit, but nothing bad or work avoiding, just some head tossing and watching the other horse / craning her head and/or neck and not wanting to work correctly. But once she realised she wasn't going to be allowed stop working she got over it and settled down to do work; trotting circles, figures of eight and lots of rein changes with and without using the trotting poles. She remained well balanced the whole time which made a change from thursday evening where she was tripping over her feet a bit. Nothing like some trotting poles as a bit of bribery/ incentive to do propper work, ;)
Today was a good day, we had another hack in the woods with the friend who has been helping me and her two dogs (same girl who looked after Kika for me last weekend), we just walked today as my nerves were a little at me after how the previous forrestry outing had ended. All went well, we had no issues and the dogs didn't run off this time so all in all a lovely way to spend a morning - despite herself not wanting to get up to begin with, ;)

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