Dashing through the snow

Lance is going a little stir-crazy because we had to reduce the size of his paddock to protect him from playing with the stock tank de-icer. So this morning I led him out to the arena to run and play a bit.

Neither of us realized at first that Brian had left the gate into the pasture unlatched. Lance saw the opening first, and raced out.

I have too much experience with soft tissue injuries so I held my breath and hoped he didn't hurt himself. Thankfully he has a good recall (it helps that he's very food motivated), so before long he was back in the arena on safer footing.

Later in the day, I decided to get in a ride. We didn't do a lot, just some warm-up in the arena, a walk down to the end of the lane to get our mail, and then back to the arena for a bit of schooling. As always, it was good for my soul. :-)

I choose to be thankful...

...that I got in one good ride this week!

My Sunday was otherwise occupied, in part making those chocolate-covered cranberries to take to our dressage chapter's Christmas party that afternoon. I have been fighting a cold generously shared by my husband last week, and by the end of the party I had completely lost my voice.

Monday I still had no voice (still don't), but felt pretty good otherwise and took advantage of some time to ride. I got a little start as I approached the barn to find Ollie loose:

Apparently I didn't latch his stall door after refilling his stock tank that morning. This must have been his first look around outside, because INside the barn he had sampled all the hay, left a steaming pile, and found the bucket of apples I picked for Lance's riding rewards:

After Ollie was secured, Lance and I had a lovely schooling session. And that looks like the only one we'll be getting in for awhile. I had to work on Tuesday and take my MIL to Portland today, and came home to snow, slick roads, and frozen arena with no sign of a quick thaw before our Christmas trip. It is what it is; I'm trying not to be jealous of those of you who have access to an indoor arena!

Boot-scootin' boogie

With all that has been going on in my life and trying to post on my farm blog every day of November, posts here have been pretty scarce. But last week included several blog-worthy items so I'm going to do my best to fight through the fuzzy-headedness, sore throat and aches to tell you about them.

First of all, the results of my Cyber Monday shopping and eBay stalking both arrived.

Oy; that mirror needs cleaning!

The tall boots are fantastic! My right calf is bigger than my left so the left boot fits perfectly and the right boot is TIGHT; but thanks to the elastic panel it isn't uncomfortable.

The bitless bridle was . . . interesting. It can be used as a side-pull and with cross-under straps; we tried out both options when we schooled on Sunday.

Yes, we schooled, not just "moseyed," because I wanted to see if we could dance with the same frame and movement that we work on when using our regular bridle without anything in his mouth. I was not impressed with the cross-under option (first one shown), but the side-pull option worked quite well. The problem was, it put a lot of pressure on the bridge of his nose with a relatively narrow, unpadded cavesson, so I've decided to send it back. (It is a demo model.)

The next two rides (with our regular bit and bridle) were excellent. After playing with passage in our lesson with Julie, I had worked once with Lance in hand, tapping the top of his rump with my dressage whip to see if he would sit and offer any passage steps; he did, even though he got a bit frustrated with the whip. I thought about working on that exercise again, but didn't have a lot of extra time so just mounted up. Even though I have trouble executing it, I decided to tap the top of his rump from the saddle to see what he would do. The result was MUCH better engagement of his hindquarters with none of his usual little stumbles. We worked on that again the next day with equally good results. So excited to find something that works for us!

Looking to the future, in spite of the present

As I shared on my farm blog, now more than ever my time is not my own. Add the often wet weather to everything, and there has been little to no riding time. I managed a ride last Monday and a short one yesterday evening, plus a brief turn-out in the arena last Friday to let Lance blow off some steam. Ha; turns out there was no head of steam – all he wanted to do was "join up"! I shooed him around for a little bit to take photos of his cute self, and then lead him back to his stall.

But that hasn't stopped me from dreaming of hitting the ballroom floor. Several weeks ago at a resale clothing shop I stumbled across a pair of Ariat Volant Front-Zip tall boots. The footbed was so comfortable that I almost bought them even though I needed a taller, slimmer shaft. That renewed my interest in replacing my old Cavallos (purchased second-hand at least 20 years ago) with a pair of zippered tall boots, rather pointless unless I'm going to show again sometime. I've been stalking eBay; yesterday I pulled the trigger on a pair of "glass slippers." ;-)

I also did a wee bit of CyberMonday shopping; I ordered a demo model of this to try for trail riding. Lance has periodic bouts of petechiae that make his mouth sore; I figured this would be more comfortable AND eliminate the need to disinfect his bit after every use. Here's hoping it works for us!

We're still making tracks

...in and out of the arena.

I found out shortly after my last riding post that my DH sprayed the arena with Round-Up after sweeping up the leaves. :-(   I am ANTI-Round-up; plenty of research from around the globe has confirmed that glyphosate is NOT the benign entity Monsanto would have us believe it is. So if I do ride in the arena now, I hose off Lance's legs and hooves afterwards to minimize his exposure to the harmful chemical.