To ride dressage is to dance with your horse, equal partners in the delicate and sometimes difficult work of creating harmony and beauty.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Boots and Breezy

The Renegade hoofboots arrived Friday, and I could hardly wait to try them out. I unpacked them, admired them, and when I finally had some time for myself (evening), I ran down to the barn to . . . find they are too small.  :-(

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with a very nice person at Renegade before ordering the size that I did; we both thought the next size up (2WW) would be TOO big. I can send them back for a refund or exchange for the next size up; I just hate spending the extra money for shipping back and forth and back! Oh well; if they won't work (I cannot get the heel captivator – an ingenious device – up over Lance's heel bulbs), they won't work, and the sooner I send these back, the sooner I can get the replacements – hopefully before our next horse-camping trip.

Lance and I still had a lovely ride in the moonlight. Last Sunday at a neighborhood picnic, I talked to a couple neighbors about where I could ride on our hill. I used to ride all over, but with more houses and fences built in the area I wasn't sure what was acceptable anymore. With permissions in hand, we were able to go quite a ways and mostly stay off the gravel; it felt like "the good old days." :-)

Poor old Breezy is wondering what she's done to deserve being put back to work on a regular basis. The visiting "neighbor" girl has been riding nearly every day, and the last couple of times I put her on the lunge line so we could work on making Breezy maintain trot and canter. Next week another girl is coming out (with her mother) to watch one of these sessions and decide if she wants to take lessons from me. That would be a paying student, which would put some money in the bank for things like lessons and shows. Yay for me; more work for the old gray mare!  :-/

4 comments:

thecrazysheeplady said...

She's probably actually happy for the attention? :-)

Mary said...

Perhaps she does like the attention, but also needs a little bute to keep up? I know I do.

Woodrow did a stint as a lesson horse a few years back, and all went well until he decided the rider needed to up her game a bit. He started trotting out of the ring and going to the pasture gate with the poor girl. She must have learned some assertiveness as she is doing cross country now with a lovely Connemara mare.

Michelle said...

Sara, I do thinks she likes the extra grooming.

Mary, that's an excellent idea! I tend not to think of those things because I've never been a pill-popper myself.

Laura said...

There are also the B-L pellets - Bute-less. They have devil's claw and yucca and a couple of other natural anti-inflamatories. I bought some for Correy's old guy when I was living there - it did wonders for him. Coastal or Wilco should have it.

I think Tang's wondering where her pasture pony days have gone - she's getting out more (not enough, though), and while it's work, she enjoys it, I think.