Back to the grind

It’s always hard to go back to the everyday life of working and riding and being busy after being on vacation. I got the boys back on schedule and had some great rides this week.

Exactly!

Stampede

Stampede and I got the week going with a lesson on Tuesday. After some rough rides over the weekend, Stampede really settled down and got to work this week. He was quiet on the flat but responsive so I decided to test my luck and jump. Jumped two courses and he was moving up for distances on his own, which I like to see. There were obviously a few bobbles since we hadn’t jumped much, but I was incredibly happy with how good he felt.

I woke someone up from a nap when I got to the barn today, he was not pleased.

Thursday we did a nice hack in the field where he was ridiculously lazy. Decided to push for shorter amounts of good work and made it through. Since there is a C show at the barn this weekend the locations to ride are very limited. Stampede and I rode in a small field by the poop pile yesterday. I thought he might be silly since he hasn’t been over there since last year but he was really good. He was slightly scared of the water truck as it drove by to go to the pond to fill up, but he held it together and finished with some nice stretchy trot.

Today we had an easy lunge. He was very distracted with the show and the horses at the barn next door, but once I shortened the straps on his Pessoa knock off he was able to focus a bit and get the job done. Nothing ground breaking but he spent some time using himself properly without me on his back which is all we were aiming for.

In other exciting Stampede news, he is scheduled to get a shockwave (ESWT) treatment on his back on Thursday. I’m trying to find the right blend of optimistic but not overly excited in case it doesn’t help, but I am certainly hopeful.

Phoenix

Monday P and I just did an easy bareback hack after he got his feet done. It was overcast out and we did have a few rain drops fall on us while we were working in the field but made it through.

P is always ready for treats to appear

Wednesday I got back in the saddle with a lazy pony (plus I had worked out right before). We didn’t do anything crazy. I tried to make sure he was pushing from behind and we did several trot/canter/trot transitions. Friday with horse show schooling we were relegated to one of the sand rings. We rode around while the tractor dragged the ring, so we had some nice footing. P felt great at the trot but took a little bit to get stretched out at the canter. When we have shows the horses get more limited turnout, so I think he was a bit stiff.

Today P and I ventured out to the tiny field by the poop that I rode Stampede in yesterday. The first direction (to the right) was okay, although he was being a bit rushy off the ground at the trot and didn’t want to bend. To the left he had some kind of meltdown about the footing closer to the poop which is a bit of deeper sand and grass since the poop used to be there. The trot was speedy and the canter was a mess. He kept wanting to go fast at the canter but we didn’t have enough space. Then I couldn’t pull him together enough to hold his lead in back so we kept falling apart. Ended up just cantering to the right a bit more then halting and cooling out. On to better rides I’m sure!

True story

Headed back to the barn in a bit to hay and water.