Weekend Recap: Full of Play Time

"A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence. ~Pam Brown"

Thunder on a mission, Pal sight seeing.
'To the right we have...'

This weekend the weather broke the freezing mark, giving us a serious invitation for trail time! Woo.
Now that I have found my mental 'balls' and have begun hitting the trails with Pal, I am becoming slightly addicted.
I cannot help but think the entire time about how great the experience is for her brain. I get to relax and enjoy being with my horse but yet she still learns and matures. Huge plus' in my books. Not mentioning how much more fresh and eager she feels the next time I ride.

Saturday I had planned to venture out myself on Pal for our first solo trail ride but it turned out everyone else chose the exact moment to show for a trail. The more the merrier!
So, I set up my little grid for the day, three low bounces, (for work on Pal's coordination, power and straightness) and a three stride line of narrow jump fillers, (for work just on straightness). Then I grabbed Paloma, tacked and headed out with two other gals from the barn.
First off, the three mares were all spooking at the line of ice between the snow filled ditches and the roadway. *rolls eyes*. Though, I cannot blame Pal, ever since her bad experience with ice as a three year old she has never quite gotten over it.

Twenty minutes later we managed to cross the road...

Pal has always been pretty forward on trails. A little looky when we come up along a dense tree line but otherwise confident. Today though, I was determined to work on her listening skills since she loves to tune me out and head out, taking the lead and lapping all others on the trail with us. She was not overly enthused about waiting but she obliged. Often using the excuse to grab a dried corn stalk and whack herself repeatedly with it, dirt flying everywhere. (Why pony... why).
We ran into a little partially frozen 'river' between two fields. None of the horses would cross it as soon as they heard a little 'crunch' under their hooves. I was determined to make Pal cross. For confidence reasons, rather than making it scary by whacking with a stick, I jumped off and waded through the water. Thank goodness I chose to wear my waterproof winters today. Pal wearily followed. Then, partway through deciding to nearly jump on top of me. (Mommy, catch me!).

After crossing I mounted back up, which is getting a little harder this past year. Sadly, Pal is almost too big for this now.
This is the moment where the others decided to tell me that they changed their mind and no longer wanted to cross. *sigh*. Pal again didn't want to cross despite my prompting. This time she got a smack but remained rooted. Soo... the process repeated itself and I admitted defeat with the ice. Better for her to be safe I guess. Off we went to finish up the trail.


Getting back home I headed off into the arena to work on a short w/t/c and grid school.
Pal was lovely forward and soft. I expected issues with the narrows since straightness has been a bit of an issue lately as well as bounces but they have always been an issue for Pal. She just flatly doesn't like them and would rather stop half way through, spin and jump out the way she came... crafty.


A bit flat, but using her haunch more. Not as confident through.

I set the bounces as low X's to keep her straight through and a low 2'6 vertical in the center to start working up the size of bounces since I know bounces would speak mountains in her jump training. But first step, confidence.

The narrow jump fillers were a non issue, actually quite lack luster. Turns out the straightness is my lack of riding. Oops.



Stepping a bit deeper behind in preparation, rounding quite nicely.
Much better expression.

Then, we trotted the grid. It started off meh... she figured it out but I felt a little wobble in her
confidence. But big praise, she stayed forward off my leg.
We came through a few times over, both directions, staying in trot because she has trouble with collection. That will be step two before bumping up the heights to reap the best benefits.



Working on a bit more contact over fences, much better bascule
this time through despite the tiny effort.

Each time through there was noticeable improvement in her confidence. She got a little flat over the vertical which meant she really has to sit back for the little X. Great lesson for her though.

We called it a day after a few times through and had a little long trot with lots of pats.
Overall I was really pleased. Not much phases this mare but bounces have always been tough for her.






Afterwards, I decided to grab Thunder for a little flat hack and a bit of grid work. Sadly the poor guy was not feeling his normal self so I decided to keep it short. I was about to jump off when he literally dragged me to the grid. I gave him a pat and told him only once, he needs his rest! I took out the middle element, leaving a small X- bounce pole - small X.


Look at that uphill canter....*sigh*

By the look on his face you would think I smacked him by putting it down, hah. I have never met a horse with this much ambition for 'the bigger the better'.


Saturday night was the 5th annual barn Christmas party. I was so spoiled! Apparently I must have been a little too vocal with my 'pony want-it list'... Mish-mosh bought Pal and I our event colour saddle pad and bonnet, along with the 4-strap brushing boots I have been oogling! I heart Nunn-finer.
Then Janny, BO, bought Pal new open fronts since my current ones are a shaggy mess of threads and slightly torn neoprene.
One would have thought I won the lottery by the sound of me I am sure, well until Mish named me her boot shiner for the 2015 season... What the... How does one go from hero to zero in less than a week. lol. Kidding.


Sunday I had the horses, Thunder and Pal, ready for when Mish rolled in. Gotta repay the favour, that's what good buds do! We had another great trail even including a few firsts! A- Pal followed nearly the entire ride and B- we had our first road trail experience which was great.

I do have to mention though that the sheep with the black bodies but white coats are terrifying to horses this time of year. It even took me a few minutes to decipher what the heck was floating across the snow in hoards! That is a story for another time.


Also, note to self. Move when you see flying hooves.

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Vid still from last week's jumping on a circle exercise.
Pal starting to use herself better over fences, much squarer off the base.
These random approaches to fences are making her think.
Me- forgetting my leg at the base.



Vid Still from last week.
This softness and swing is becoming a welcome sight in our
rides as of late. Hullo EQ.