Never Ending April Showers

It has rained every day for over a week straight. And when it isn't raining the bugs are swarming. Then this week the heat started. Yesterday reached almost 80degrees, which is far too hot for horses that haven't finished shedding out their winter coats.

Then on Easter Sunday I got sick. I've been battling a sore throat, chronic cough and congestion plus generally feeling like utter crap.

I went to clean the barn and bring the horses in last night and I was shaky and coughing and just bleh... Then I had a strong impulse to ride. I had tried riding the day before, but just as I finished grooming UK it started to pour.

So I groom and tacked up UK, while almost coughing up a lung. It was muggy, buggy and the sun was starting to set. I lunged UK briefly, walked him over the tarp covered calvaletti and then hopped on. UK was fantastic. We did some lateral work, circles, poles, etc. Eventually we jumped a small vertical at the trot and the canter. He wasn't paying attention at the trot, so we knocked it down once each direction. This was another way he behaved himself, as I had to dismount each time and put it back up, then get back on. He could've care less about me hoping on and off.  He jumped the vertical at the canter like a champ.

In mid air over the vertical I realized something. I trust UK. This is the first time in a long time that I've had that feeling. I know UK will still spook and occasionally be fresh, but he never does anything with ill intent.  Tess was a whole different story, she would randomly drop a shoulder and slam on the brakes or dive sideways.

UK has this huge wish to please, he trusts me to not hurt him or put him in a dangerous situation. He only gets anxious when he thinks he isn't doing exactly what I'm asking. He was that way last night, we were cantering a bending two stride line of poles, and he got so mad when he didn't listen to my leg and wasn't able to stay balanced. It was adorable!

It's raining again now, but hopefully I'll get to ride him again on Sunday!

Lunging and Free Jumping

So after two days of rain, today dawned sunny and warm. I had lunged UK despite the gross weather yesterday. All this climate change has been making my ankle hurt like the dickens, so riding hasn't really been possible.

I managed to drag the ring before the rain started earlier in the week (I think it was Monday, not sure) only to have the battery die in the tractor... So it's been sitting in the ring with the dreaded tarp on top of it. I've been moving it around the ring and making UK lunge near/around it. Feeding him on the tarp seemed to really be the step we needed to take. It's still scary but not enough to send him flying across the ring, it only warrants a small spook now.

So after lunging him on a lungeline, I let UK loose to free jump. This was after getting him to follow me over the calvaletti with the tarp over it!!!! MOMENTOUS OCCASION! He got a whole carrot for that.

Below is a video of all the pictures I took with my camera of him free jumping. He had a couple knockdowns, mostly due to getting distracted, but no problems otherwise. He's really starting to adjust himself as needed. Not only did he canter everything, but he also trotted everything as well. I think the jumps ended up being 2'6", but I honestly am not sure.

Anyhoo, enjoy!

I think it may be spring finally!

Be quiet though, wouldn't want to scare it away! So on and off for the past week the weather has been generally 50degrees and upward, with occasional days of rain and gloom, like today. Yesterday was almost 80degrees at one point, it was so nice to not have to wear multiple layers!

I've been lunging UK pretty regularly now. I'm going to try to ride again soon, the last few times I tried to get on it started pouring on my drive to the barn. Talk about feeling cursed. Then the weather was finally nice enough but I had to be other places and doing other things. Damnit. Oh well, I'll ride him again soon.

Ok, this is just so cute.

Om, nom, nom, nom. 

So last weekend I decided to take some extra pictures to show you all a bit of 1832 Farm. It is our own little horse heaven. Most of Connecticut is either, woods, swamp or pavement these days so I count myself lucky to have a place where there is some actual room for my horse to be a horse.

Ok, so a big chunk is swamp, but they sure learn how to be surefooted. 

The above view is  looking towards the back of the barn from across the swamp. To the left, behind that fencing is where our ring is. Betsy's house is to the right, you can just see it.

See, it's not all swamp.

A view of the area around me. The fence you can see to the left is the border between us and some neighbors. Soon this will all be beautiful green grass, yeah!

And if I turn the other way, more grass! Behind those trees directly ahead is another paddock they usually can play in, but at the moment it's fenced off. The winter did a number on the fencing back there and it is literally falling apart.

All together Betsy owns a very large chunk of land, and the horses get to use the majority of it. When the grass comes in, it's lush and plentiful. There is a constant breeze due to it's high elevation, which is a blessing in the summer and a bother in the winter.

Well, I'm going to attempt to get some good photos of UK free jumping soon. I'd really like to get him to jump the tarp without spooking, but we'll see.

Toodles!

UK's Birthday

So Wednesday the 6th was UK's 9th birthday. The weather was wet, cold and dreary. So he got an intensive grooming and much spoiling, along with copious amounts of carrots. 

LOOK! Shoulder muscles!!! All that conditioning work is paying off!

It's very nice to have a horse that actually likes me again. If I had tried to do this with Tess there would have been at least two attempts on my life and an attempt to poop on me while picking her feet. 

Yum! Carrots!

We played around for quite awhile, making him do stretches for the carrots and attempting to remove more hair from him. All his white markings have two to three times amount of winter hair that his chestnut areas do. It was cool when he first grew his winter coat, as all the white really popped, but now it's just more work.

Could you say no to that face? The cute factor is at 9 here.

Now then, UK's one request for his birthday is that he would get to write something his own words for once. I've shown him Jack & Jill's adventures and it helped him understand the whole blog thing better. 

HI!

I'm UK, well you probably know that already... I'm new to this whole internet thing. Mom has shown me a lot of cool things on here, but she also keeps putting up embarrassing videos of me. I don't like that much, that tarp is going to kill, just wait and see, I'm right!

Mom keeps using that camera thing, I do not understand why she is always making me pose for it. It's really annoying in the morning when all I want to do is enjoy my morning hay and try to stay out of Dacharia's way. (She's a bit cranky first thing.)

Did I mention that I love to jump? I really do! I like what Mom calls "bounces", she says they're good for my agility or something but I just think they're fun. Jumping is so much more fun then going around and around the ring with my head low like I used to have to do when I was a western pleasure horse. That was SO boring. 

Mom keeps saying I think too much, but she's one to talk, I know she does it too. Sometimes though she is right, but don't tell her I said that. 

I have to say though, she keeps life interesting! I had never even heard of eventing before I met her, and I had never been ridden english before either. I'd seen some of my old barnmates being ridden english and watched them jump, it was pretty cool but I never thought that would be me eventually! Now she keeps telling me about things she reads about on a place called Eventing Nation, then she showed me some of the stuff they have. WOW! Some of those horses are really cool! I like how they get to jump different things. Not sure how I feel about that dressage stuff though, what Mom calls "flatwork" is not my favorite. At least we don't just go around and around the ring, she makes me do all sorts of things.

Well, I have to go, Dacharia doesn't like being alone very long. I didn't think having a girlfriend meant I would never get time to myself... Ugh. Well, off I go.

Bye!

-UK

I RODE! THANK THE WEATHER GODS! I GOT TO RIDE!

YES!

This morning: 2nd time eating off the tarp. Yes!

First time since JANUARY I've gotten to ride my horse! It was windy as all heck but I persevered! All the ground work I've been laying really paid off. He's in excellent shape all together, while lunging him yesterday I noticed he now has studly shoulder muscles! I'm rather proud considering he had no muscle when I bought him last June, he looked like the equine version of a pole bean.

I lunged him briefly first, just to be safe. He had some spook in him but I ignored it and made him just keep moving forward. Then I hopped on and immediately made him start working. Lots of bending and flexing, stretching and collecting. Biggest thing I've found is if he's trying to spook in a specific area I make him stare at it by doing an outside bend/renvers, it took all the scary out of it and helped him focus. *fist pump*

I'm at that lovely point where he trusts me more and we're really starting to figure each other out. The good is outweighing the bad now!

As an added bonus I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was, all my riding muscles were there and working despite everything that's happened in the last 6 months. I rode him for a good half hour after lunging him almost as long (we had a chat with Betsy in the middle of lunging) and then proceeded to clean the barn and feed them. I felt pretty damn good considering I had outpatient surgery on Monday and have needed some serious painkillers till today.

Right before I brought them in to feed I played with my camera and took some pictures.

Curiosity is starting to outweigh fear.

Begging faces (I have a carrot in my pocket).

Classic Quarter Horse face! Love it!

Well it's very late and I need to be conscious in order to teach tomorrow. Toodles!