Short and Sweet

The title is obviously not talking about the content of this blogpost, because we know I suffer from massive word vomit - but i do promise to include pictures...of the horses; not vomit!

Her facial expression is saintly - she is soooooooo rocking the crimped look. The things my horses put up with from me

First off I had one of my fab horsey weekends that I haven't had the pleasure off in what seems like for-EVAR. *sigh* #adulthoodwoes & #grownupproblems

Photo-posing fails after our Sunday stroll in the woods.
Kika is not tied to Nancy, the leadrope is just resting over N's withers.
I hold K's lead while on Nancy

Saturday started off with an incredibly frustrating spin on Nancy, not 100% her fault as she hadn't been ridden since the 1st of Jan - but still there was no inside bend what's over on the right rein. Zilch - in fact she was twisting so badly to the outside that she kept drifting into the ring - Eurgh, I would've cried if not for the frustration. Our typically worse left side was a dream by comparison, she was all "bend? No problem I can haz that ☺" but tracking right i got a big fat "No comprendo" ... if the difficulty continues I will get osteo out - however I hold my hands up & readily admit the problem could be me being crooked and/or sending mixed messages. Or could just be her way of telling me to F-off that has been enjoying the downtime and doesn't fancy working on circles & bend etc again.  Welcome back to the teenage years ;-)

Photos taken in sequence

Kika on the other hand was a dream, admittedly she had spun on the walker for 30 - 45 minutes (I never know exactly #badhorsemama). We ended up being in a less than ideal riding situation with a crowded arena. The large main arena had been mostly abandoned due to crazy winds rocking through Lux this weekend (forecast said between 80 & 90km/h) and the main arena is horrible when super windy as there is an awful racket which would completely fry Kika's special brain of I had even considered attempting to ride in there. As I value my life & her sanity - I never had any intention of doing so. It would appear I was not the only one as I found myself with four other riders in the smaller arena - one of which was getting a private lesson through headset. A situation I find incredibly difficult to share the arena with as the rider is concentrating on what the trainer is telling them and it is up to others to keep out of their way. Let's just say K and I practiced a lot of stop/start. Sort of transitions, right?!

I think this is the only capture i managed with both their ears forward

 Anyways she was a rock star considering the poor space ratio, I managed to carve out a chunk for myself. Put K through her paces and skedaddled back to the sanity of a quieter grooming area. Due to the winds I didn't turn the girls out Saturday, but did leave them naked in their stables so they could roll & scratch to their hearts content without the rugs taking from the good of it. They had 100% fresh beds as I cleaned their stables myself between spins and had unbraided Nancy on Friday evening so she could shake it off for the weekend.

Google Images LINK

From there I went to hangout with my good friend S, who used to keep her horse at our yard but moved him to another barn in May and I obviously no longer see enough of them. So she swung by my barn to see the girls, chat with her other friends before we scarpered together so I could play with her pooch while she worked her horse. It really was the perfect way to spend a Saturday ☺ (or at least imo)

Blooper - Derpy Nancy

Sunday is where the blogpost title comes from.
When I woke up to blue skies I decided if it wasn't too windy Nancy, Kika & I were going to go for a hack in the woods. Of course by the time I was ready to hit the road, the blue skies were intermittent but the wind was considerably more contained than it had been the day before. So rather than potentially argue with Nancy again about bend, I decided we needed a change of scenery. That and I heard sad news Saturday that the first person I spoke to at the stable when Kika arrived 5 years ago & who accompanied me on our first trail ride to show me the routes had unexpectedly passed away at 71 years of age the night before. She was a wonderful person and so full of life, hearing of her death really knocked me for six.
So in honour of her I opted to take my girls for a stroll in the woods.

Kika's turn to be derptastic 

Now the wind was hardly abashed and in fact I had to go back before leaving the car park to take off the bright orange waterproof quarter sheet Nancy usually wears for hacking in the woods (so we'll be seen and not accidentally shot by hunters - not likely, but I'd rather be safe than sorry) as the wind that was blowing it was going to wreak havoc with the quarter sheet. It wasn't cold, just blustery so I figured we'd be fine without it for our quick spin. I wanted to keep it short & sweet (geddit - post title makes sense now right ;-) ) so that we wouldn't get caught out if the wind did turn nasty.

Derp squared

I actually hand-walked them both to the entrance of the forest, as the road to get to the woods is tarmac'd and an awful wind corridor so I didn't want us to suffer any mishaps or get tangled before we even got into the woods. The good thing about the wind was that Kika stayed closer to Nancy & I than she normally does and I didn't feel like I was hauling her along with us ;-)
I didn't nab any forestry photos this time sadly as although both girls were angels about the wind, I didn't fancy getting caught out if there was a sudden bluster or something and I didn't have 100% control cos I was acting the maggot snapping photos on my camera phone! Safety first ☺

Re-plaited last night ready for the week ahead

I am unlikely to make it to the barn this evening as I am meeting a friend after work, so I haven't turned them out this lunchtime just in case I don't get back in time to bring them in. Hopefully it will be service as usual tomorrow with all going well some saddle time tomorrow evening when I am hopefully to be more patient and make some headway with Nancy & my arena work - if it is dodgy again on the same rein this week I may have to see if I can schedule a lesson before May ... May being when the girls go back on 24/7 turn out and I save some pennies on their livery costs, so am hoping to be able to snag 6 months of lessons before the go back in for November 1st. Sometimes there is method to my madness - sometimes!

PS: Apologies if this post title was misleading and you thought this might be a less wordy post than my norm #sorrynotsorry - Guess I have the gift of the gab