Back to the grindstone

After nearly 2 weeks unscheduled break (well sort of, I knew I was going to Ireland for a long weekend) from the saddle, I finally got my act together today and logged some quality time with my girls.

Oh Hai! We missed you blogosphere...did you miss us?!

I headed to the yard about 11.45 and found the two of them alone. The third horse was out for a stroll with her owner, who said she'd be about 15 mins and then had to feed her. So i hauled my two in and decided to lunge Kika; something I've been meaning to do for months and either didn't get out of work on time or just opted to ride instead. However with the time schedule of other horse being ready to go back out i wouldn't have K ridden in time & didn't want to faff with putting Nancy out to bring her back in shortly afterwards.

Are you talking about me?!

K was a super star to lunge in just her bridle, no pessoa or gadgets as again I was sort of limited on time & toying with the idea of hauling her back in after i rode Nancy to give her a proper under saddle spin. However she listened to me well and didn't have one leap, buck, fart or take off moment the whole time we worked on transitions w/t/w on larger and smaller circles going in both directions. Then the same again for t/c/t with some walk either side of changing the rein. All this while the other mare from their field kept calling her every time K passed the lunge arena window while O was having a bath. K listened to me the whole time & when she thought about whickering back to O's first call & I said "No", K listened and kept on her circle without another thought to replying to her buddy.

Yep - me so good

In fact she was so good that a mad notion overtook my normally rational & safety conscious brain. Wherein i simply had to hop up on her bareback for a walk around to cool her out - bad me had no helmet or boots on. But you know how you just know the mood they are in?! Plus I knew that if i took her out of the arena to go get my helmet she would think she was finished and no longer be in a good mood about going back in. So i hedged my bets & am so glad that I did. We only walked as she has pretty bony withers,  but she dropped her head and even walked without fuss into the scary corners that always get the OMG-hairy-eyeball when lunging.
It was awesome!!! ☺

Nancy stood in the cross ties like the great girl she is as K, myself and the turnout buddy left to cross back over the road to return to the field. K had had some more pampering with the new Ecolicious Leave Me Bee fly spray and some mane and tail brushing. Tomorrow I must pull her mane despite the protests i know this will be met with. She is looking pretty scraggly in today's photos.

Then it was Nancy's turn, tacked her up after her own pampering/grooming session complete with fly spraying too. Stuff smells divine ♡♡♡
We wandered around the main arena in walk while i faffed with instagram for my #rootd - yeah I am that sad. But seeing as it was N & my first time back in the saddle in almost two weeks I didn't want to harass her right from the start about her walk. So we meandered for a bit...ahem probably a bit longer than we should have LOL. But thems the joys of having no other plans for the day - I could take my time & enjoy my ponios.

We did buckle down to work & concentrated on our walk trying to remember the tips from my lesson but not nit-picking so that N wouldn't curl in on herself to avoid what i was asking of her (this would come later). I had deliberately not re-read my lesson recap prior to riding so that I could ease us back into work after our mini-break without pressure & tips floating about in my brain making me tense and potentially crabby. Our trot work was good as almost always, thankfully that hadn't gone away. We tried some t/w transitions with plenty circles and serpentines thrown in to work on our bend. Then we moved up to some canter work as another rider joined us in the arena. We got two lovely bad-side canter strike offs interspersed with some more trot work & change of rein to avoid rushing & her pre-empting a canter request. We then changed the rein to rinse & repeat with walk & trot work again mixed in to change things up a bit.

Ooh Shiney

N was an angel, but began to tire at this point and rather annoyingly the other rider seemed to be almost under our feet every time we turned or changed rein etc as we were both trying to use the far wall mirrors to work on ourselves. We did some more walk & trot work but N was being obnoxious (as obnoxious as she gets) and curling in on herself the evade what i was asking of her - she was also pretty tired at this stage so i persevered w/t transitions with serpentines/changes of rein until she stretched back out for me and called it quits.
Despite the bit of a nosedive at the end of our spin, I was super happy with what we'd achieved beforehand.
How many young horses can be hauled in out of the field after so little work his summer & NONE over the last fortnight  and not kick up a fuss about anything. Deff not Miss K at that age, she would have needed quite a few sessions on the lunge to re-engage her brain to under saddle work ;-)

Kika kept a close eye on my dismantling

After another post-ride pampering session I took N back out to the field and set about taking down the temporary fencing that can be seen on the left of the first photo to give the poor starving horses access to the fresh grass on the other side. Rolling and un-rolling uncooperative white tape that insisted on tying itself in knots - i am woefully useless at re-rolling tape neatly, so it took a lot longer than it should have LOL.

Apologies for the sideways start to the video, I had to call K over to me to help her make her way around to the fresh grass side. Tomorrow I get to finish trying to clear the droppings off the grazed side so that the grass can regrow on the now "old" side. Hopefully I can put K & N back on that side next month and avoid giving them hay until they go out on our winter turn out ☺

K is still a little too round for my liking but we'll shift that soon

I got home just after 6pm because i kept an eye on them as they grazed while i started poop picking on the now vacant side.
7ish hours well spent i think LeLolz ☺