Monday 12 January 2015

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

16 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry about your friend! I'm glad that you had a good weekend though. Hopefully, the wind stops soon. It's the worst to ride in.

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    1. It was a shock alright.
      Wind or no the horses will be going out tomorrow & i will hopefully ride on in the evening as I am unlikely to be able to do either on Wednesday due to a meeting about the apartment and meeting all my neighbours etc after work #grownupproblems

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  2. Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. :( Sending hugs

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  3. that ride sounds like the perfect way to commemorate your friend's memory! glad the girls were well behaved. hope the winds ease up soon tho - and that Ms Nancy remembers how to bend without osteo intervention. silly girl... tho i get it, crowded arenas really are tough...

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    1. It was the perfect way to remember my friend, my girls were angels to indulge me considering the less than stellar weather. Methinks they were both just glad to not be spinning in circles and could amble along on a loose-ish rein.
      Thankfully there was only one person hand-walking then lunging when Nancy was bulging - had the arena been as busy as it was with Kika later there would have been carnage as Nancy had rediscovered her stubborn draft streak and there was no way she was listening to my inside leg

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  4. I'm so sorry about your friend. :( I'm glad you got out for a ride. It helps, for me at least. I keep meaning to ask, why are you the only one that can turn the girls out? Isn't that usually the barn owner's job? Or does full stall board not include turnout, but she lets you turn them out if you want to? Kind of confused lol.

    P.S. I love her crimped mane. :D

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    1. Winter turnout is not an option at my barn. My girls only get to go out because I live in the area and happen to know someone from my high school days whose family has a plot of land smack bang in the middle of the Yard Owners land. Needless to say this caused problems when I first got the use of it with the BO - but as i pay the same amount of livery as everyone else and ask nothing of them in return (except for a round bale or two of hay which I pay extra for) - it is now all painless and civil.
      The Friends who i lease the land from stipulated that no one else be involved in the use of the land - so i turn out and bring in my girls. Gives me a great excuse to get to the yard on my lunch break ♡

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    2. Ahhh okay that makes sense. Thanks for explaining it to me. I've been curious about it for a while, but I kept forgetting to ask about it. I'm so glad your friend lets the girls go out there in the winter. :)

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    3. Yep I am beyond lucky, Kika would've killed me by now if she was still stuck in her stable all winter.
      My mother says she's a free range horse & needs to be outside ;-)

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  5. Oh I forgot to mention... there is no way I could ride in an arena with someone taking a lesson through the headset!! Could you hear the trainer? If you can't, how in the world would you know what she was about to do next? I applaud you for being able to work around that lol.

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    1. Nope i can't hear the trainer talking to the lessonee through the headset. Well I can if i ride down the end of the arena the trainer is sitting in, but as 9 out of 10 lessons are done in Germany - i tune it out as my Germany isn't very strong and the amount of concentration necessary would seriously take away from my focus on my horse.
      To be honest it's no different to riding in a warm up arena in a show situation. In fact shows are prob worse cos there is usually a lot less stress involved in lessons, the person taking the lesson also has to take responsibility and watch what others are doing while so following instructions. Multi-tasking at its finest ☺

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    2. I've never ridden in a warm up arena at a show so I have no idea what that is like. It looks hectic and scary to me lol. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my horse because I'd be worried about running people over hehe. Can you tell I've always ridden at home or in empty arenas??

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    3. I should read my comments before posting, stupid autocorrect. Supposed to say German not Germany!
      Warm up rings are fine so long as everyone respects the rules...Sadly not always the case!

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  6. So sorry to hear about your friend. =-( Glad you were able to get both of the girls out for a little. I don't think I would be brave enough to handle both of my boys on a ride like that!

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    1. I can only lead Kika from Nancy, it would be impossible to do the other way around. Kika is too much of a wuss, Nancy is much mellower & braver so it works :-)

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