The last few weeks!

Well. I've ridden exactly 3 times in the month I've been at the new farm.:( That's definitely a bummer. I was riding way more than that at "crazy lady's" barn. As I said in my last post, the problem is that now I'm out physically working for 3 hours as opposed to brushing, grazing, hand walking, riding, etc. for 3 hours. School is over next week, so that will open up Tues/Thurs as days to go out and JUST be with Tiki.

I wanted to tell about the day we went out with the group. I was so proud. I showed up at the barn, ready to ride in the crappy little ring and there was a group of ladies getting ready to trail out. I invited myself along, knocked off the dirt, and threw on my saddle. As we headed up the big hill out to the road, Tiki jigged. Tiki has never jigged, that is SO un-Tiki-like. Granted, it was a HUGE hill ... and the boy WAS a turf horse, so that wide open hill of grass probably called to that primitive part of him that made him WANT to run. Anyway, I struggled to keep him at a walk; a nice, sedate walk. I ended up circling a lot. We tried to go out the gate, and he would NOT go behind the horse standing there. Said horse moved, and we were fine to go out the gate. We spooked at a car, leaped up a small hill, spooked at a dog when another horse spooked at a dog, and jigged a whole bunch. Once I let him get to the front of the pack, he settled down. We were up front sort of by ourselves, and he settled into his ground eating walk with his head down, snuffling. The second another horse came up beside us, he tensed up, jigged again, and became super-alert. Interesting. Rather than the other horses calming him, they just made him nervous. We worked in the neighbor's grass ring for about 15 minutes, and he was a good boy. SERIOUSLY counter-bent at the right lead canter, but what did I expect? I'd ridden him once in 2 weeks. We ended up well; all the ladies exclaimed about what a good boy he was, and how they were expecting much worse. All in all, I was proud.

So, I hadn't ridden in a week last Friday, and brought my stuff out to the barn. Nope, huge swollen leg. GREAT! I trotted him down the aisle, and he was sound. PHEW!:) Cold hosed it, wrapped it, and stuck him in his stall. Rinse and repeat Saturday and Sunday. Remove wrap Sunday afternoon; it does look better. Turn out Monday in the rain, pray he's fine Tuesday, Wednesday leg looks ALMOST normal. Turkey Day Thursday, go out Friday planning a light walk around. Leg looks PERFECT. Tight, cool, and perfectly normal. We go into crappy little ring, and he was HORRIBLE. Bucked every time I asked for a trot, walked all sucked up in this stupid, backed off frame, and leaped straight up in the air everytime he tripped (which was often). I played Clinton Anderson and rode on a LOOSE rein, then pulled him into a tight one rein circle each time he got quick. I want to grab his face and hang when he's fast, so it was very interesting to ME to ride him on no contact when I knew he was so fresh and forward. We ended up well. All I wanted was calm and quiet. I feel like we did end there. BO said footing should be in by next weekend; halleuia!!!:) I need to be more disciplined if I want my horse to be anything more than a pasture/stall ornament. Time to stop feeling sorry for myself because I have to WORK to afford my horse, and just do the work and the riding.

Anyway! That was yesterday; it's raining today and tomorrow so I won't see the boy until Monday when I go out to clean his stall. Depending on the conditions, I would like to hop on and repeat Friday's ride in the crappy ring. Hopefully he will have remembered, and will be a little better. Leg looked great after the ride; I rubbed on a little liniment gel just in case, but it was still cool tight. Yay! I just thank God for finally letting my have my pony; I do love him!!:)