Say what?

Hello there, my meaty mustang!

(This is one of my new favorite photos of Lance, inspired by all the great photos Alanna shares of Emi just standing there. I got lucky; Lance doesn't usually cooperate when I "park" him like this to get a photo!)

I've been trying to get Lance out for exercise more often because he's FAT. He's also coughing some so may not feel like exerting himself, but there's no benefit to being a stall-potato. Last night I didn't have time to ride, so I worked him on the lunge-line for 20 minutes or so. Today I'm hoping for a longer ride than usual....

In my last post I mentioned that Lance took a couple of odd steps during our ride that day. The next day (Jan. 4) on our way home from school, Brian mentioned that when he entered the barn that morning Lance was laying down in his stall. When Brian went in to clean, Lance got up and staggered around "like his hind legs went to sleep," then leaned against the door frame briefly before walking out (normally) into his paddock. Mental warning bells went off; I started quizzing Brian for all the details. After determining that there really had been an ataxic episode of some kind, I called Rick. Fortunately for me (but not for our bank account), he hasn't been busy, so he made time that day to exam Lance.

The verdict? Move along; nothing to see here (at least right now). Lance checked out completely normal, even though he was a little hard to evaluate during flexion tests because he was a silly, playful TWIT who would not trot off in a straight line! So we've been just keeping on keeping on.

Saturday afternoon I squeezed in a quick ride between our busy comings and goings – it was just too beautiful not to. The mountains were glowing in the late afternoon light on our way down the lane, and on our way back home even the "elephant in the neighborhood" looked lovely:

Mt. Hood rising out of the clouds

A little closer and rosier

Mt. Jefferson

Brooks Winery

Don't look if you're in the deep freeze!

The beautiful weather that has kicked off our year continued today. Cool nights, gorgeous sunrises, sunny days; I'm squeezing in rides whenever I can!

Lance is really sluggish under saddle, and today I felt an odd shift in his hind end a couple times. I will have to bug my vet about checking him out....

End – and begin – as you mean to go on

Sorry for the month-long silence, if anyone missed us. After a great goal-reaching November, December was less fulfilling. Not bad, mind you; just more difficult to stay on track because of weather and commitments and company.

The first two weeks of December were clear and beautiful by day and cold by night. The ground got progressively harder until it was frozen solid, affecting how much we could safely do. When it finally warmed up it rained (a lot), I was busy hauling Brian to basketball practices and games, and then my folks arrived for a week. Except for that last week, I did manage to maintain our minimum standard of no more than two days off, but I don't think Lance once broke a sweat, so he ended December like so many do – FAT. ;-)

It was from lack of work, though, not from Christmas cookies . . . or these. Early in December at our Oregon Dressage Society chapter Christmas party, I got a bag of German horse muffins. Lance is a BIG fan; I think I could train him to do ANYthing with enough time and those treats! Here he is mugging for them:

At least I can get good "carrot stretches" using them – ha!

"Is this where the horse muffins are kept???"

Back to my title. Yesterday we were finally able to saddle up and head down the local lanes on a beautiful, sunny day,

and this evening we schooled for a bit in the arena while the supermoon rose, thereby both ending one year and beginning the next as we mean to go on. Hurray!

Achieving goals

November has been a great month. I'm getting to ride nearly every day, and feel blessed to do so each and every ride. The stirrups have stayed off my saddle for #NoStirrupNovember except for a couple rides down the lanes, when I thought it prudent to play it safe and be able to get back on if I should need to dismount for any reason. Lance has been great, though, so I did ride down through the woods on Friday (#optoutside) without stirrups. Wouldn't you know it; we encountered a very noisy Harley-Davidson that made Lance nervous so I hopped off, but there was a big rock nearby to use as a mounting block. (Even as a tall, spry teen, I was never able to swing/jump up onto the back of a 16hh horse from the ground!)

On our Friday ride I saw this BLOOMING rhododendron at someone's place!

And whether Lance thinks it's great or not, he has been working up a bit of sweat each ride. It seems to be helping, too; it has been a bit easier to buckle his girth the last couple of times. ;-)

The dance of the sugar plum fairy

Lance got two days off because of weather and work, but we got to ride in nice weather today. My mustang is bordering on FAT, so I've decided we need to up the intensity of our rides while keeping up the frequency. The goal: sweat. Not WET, just some sweat under the saddle or at least the girth, which is what we got today. We actually had a very nice little dance session; his walk-canter and canter-walk transitions were sharp, and he was meticulous in picking his way through the semi-circle trot poles. We finished with a good gallop around the arena to blow away the cobwebs. ;-)